


Safehaven

by iamjustmexd



Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Angst and Feels, Anxious David Jacobs, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Background Relationships, Backstory, Bisexual Jack Kelly, David Jacobs/Jack Kelly-centric, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fights, Gay Newsies, Gay Panic, Immortality, Jack Kelly Backstory, M/M, Mild Gore, Mutant Powers, Mutants, Oblivious David Jacobs, Oblivious Jack, Partial Mind Control, Recreational Drug Use, Slow Burn, Superpowers, Teenagers, Underage Drinking, Underage Drug Use, mild drug use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 30,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25237783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamjustmexd/pseuds/iamjustmexd
Summary: A Modern/Mutant AU1 out of every 100 children become mutants at the age of 9. Humans think that they are dangerous. Safehavens are places where underage mutants can live as normal lives as they can.Jack Kelly helps to look after the Manhattan safehaven.
Relationships: Albert DaSilva/Elmer (Newsies), Bill/Darcy (Newsies), Buttons/JoJo (Newsies), David Jacobs/Jack Kelly, Kenny/Knobs (Newsies), Kid Blink/Mush Meyers, Past Albert DaSilva/Racetrack Higgins, Romeo/Specs (Newsies), Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer, Sniper/Tommy Boy (Newsies), Spot Conlon/Racetrack Higgins, past Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber
Comments: 79
Kudos: 118





	1. Top Floor

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by my friend Madi

At the age of 9, 1 out of 100 children inherit abilities that could be seen as dangerous to the rest of the world. They are called mutants. Some children are made into weapons, others are kicked out of their homes and forced to fend for themselves in the world and end up either in a mutant cell or dead. A few are even hidden away by their parents, never seeing the public eye, so they may be kept safe.  
  
The even luckier ones are the ones that live in safe havens. Humans that see the way mutants are treated and dislike the system were granted the ability to take in these children until they were old enough to take care of themselves if they had space. The only things these children had to worry about were the mutant wranglers and the weaponized children working for the mutant wranglers. Otherwise, they could roam the town and live as normal lives as you could with superpowers.  
  
One of the safehavens of Manhattan was a hotel where the top floor was rented out entirely by the "Newsies", a nickname that the owner, one Medda Larkin, gave the boys living under her care. They were called that because the first boy that appeared at her doorstep had been wrapped in old newspapers. In return for the boys' housing, they went around town promoting her hotel and the theatre next door.   
  
The leader of the bunch, who also happened to be the first one who Medda took in, was Jack Kelly. He was a headstrong, arrogant boy who could talk his way out of any crisis. He was also the only one who couldn't be affected by a lot of the others' powers because of his immunity mutation. No one could affect him directly with their mutations, which made him a force to be reckoned with against the Delancey brothers.   
  
The Delancey brothers were weaponized teens who worked for Wiesel, the mutant handler. A mutant handler was someone who took in children who were to be weaponized and train them, no matter how violent he had to be.  
  
For the newsies to stay together, they had to make sure the Delancey brothers couldn't take any of them away. No newsie left behind.  
  
The upper floors of the hotel housed 21 boys, the newest additions having been there for over four years. They'd become their own little family, and when the youngest of them came of age, Jack planned to take all of them to his dream destination of Santa Fe. It was a town in New Mexico where mutants could live normal lives and be free of fear. But the youngest boy wouldn't be 18 for another 3 years and until then, they would continue working hard for their caregiver.  
  
It would be a normal day of advertising for all of them. The boys that be been there for the longest would wake up the others and make sure they all got ready for the day ahead. They'd have a breakfast right next door at Jacobi's, which would not have been opened to the public that early in the morning. Then they'd all run their routes, making sure everyone in town knew of the day's specials and performers. They'd grab a small lunch outside the church, where the nuns would provide some water and wafers to keep up the boys' strength, and then they'd circle back and meet at the hotel for some downtime.  
  
"Alright, boys! Time to go!" Jack called, walking down the hall and knocking on the doors as he walked down the hall to the elevator, Jack's best friend Crutchie right behind him.  
  
Crutchie and Jack have been friends for ages. Jack had been there since he was a baby, he assumed his parents just never wanted him. He'd been alone in the large hotel for ages until one day when he was 9, Ms. Medda introduced him to a boy with a cast on his leg and the brightest smile on his face, who also introduced himself without speaking one word out loud. Ever since Jack and the telepath have been attached at the hip.  
  
Medda stopped taking in kids after the father of their newest boy, Sniper, had tried to break into the hotel to kill him. The rest of the boys stopped the man without assaulting him and was able to get him thrown in jail for breaking and entering, and attempted murder. Medda did not want to deal with all the paperwork and trial cases again.  
  
"Crutch, do you think you can get inside of their heads and wake 'em up? This is gettin' ridiculous." Jack sighed.  
  
"I ain't practiced enough for that Jack." Crutchie shrugged, "But I can sense that one 'a the boys is already up."  
  
"Which one?" Jack realized he didn't need to ask when a strong wind pushed him back, he used all of his strength to make sure Crutchie didn't fall on the ground. "Race! Ya know the rules! No speed inside or ya go cold turkey for the day."  
  
The blur rested to form the shape of another boy, who jogged over at regular speed. "Aw come on now Jack! You wouldn't do that to me!"   
  
Jack rolled his eyes and tossed Race a piece of nicotine gum. Race had a nicotine problem at the cause of his dry irresponsible and deceased parents. They finally got him off of cigarettes and were working their way to just using one patch and/or one piece of gum a day.  
  
"Do you know why all the boys aren't wakin" up?" Jack asked.  
  
"Um..."  
  
"Race?"  
  
"Aight fine, we was drinking! But Albert was the one who found the booze!"  
  
"Snitch!" Albert's voice carried through the door beside them.  
  
Jack put his head in his hands. Knowing his boys, they'd probably all be too hungover to even think about going out. Thankfully Race had a fast recovery speed. He and Crutchie hadn't drunk at all last night so they were good, and Buttons would probably be right as rain thanks to his healing ability. The rest of them would just have to reap the consequences of a late night.  
  
"Let's just go get Buttons and go out. It'll just be us four today."   
  
"Why don't Buttons heal the other guys?" Race asked  
  
"You know he's not supposed to, Ms. Medda said if any of 'em stole from the liquor cupboard, they would just have to wait it out." Crutchie pointed out  
  
The boys who weren't passed out dead in their rooms went to get Buttons and then they had breakfast. They explained what happened to Medda, Race, and Buttons would take more of the papers since they weren't suffering from a pounding headache. Then they went their separate ways.  
  
Jack was walking down one of his streets when he heard the sound of the Delancey brothers from an apartment window. He crouched down in an alleyway so he could hear what was happening. A faux-jovial voice indicated that Weasel was there too.  
  
"Three children and you get full compensation for your leg injury, sir." Jack heard the man say.  
  
"What are you going to do to them?" Another man's voice was heard, "My oldest, she'll be an adult in a week, and the middle child is 17."  
  
"Three mutants of the same generation and blood is a rare occurrence, my good man, we always need troops."   
  
"Well, you can't have them, because they're not here!" A woman's voice rang out  
  
"Ma'am I just saw your children peaking out of the doorway there."  
  
"They left! No one's there!"   
  
"What?"  
  
Jack was about to climb the wall to see if he could see what was happening in the home when a force knocked him back. He looked around and saw nothing.  
  
"I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" A loud whisper was heard but Jack didn't know where it was coming from, not until the air seemed to ripple in front of him and suddenly a taller boy was looking right at him.  
  
"The fuck?" Jack exclaimed in a hushed tone.  
  
"David! What are you doing? Mom told us to go, we have to go!" A female voice said Jack turned to see a girl behind him, holding a little boy's hand. "I'm sorry, it's very nice to meet you but we have to get out of here."   
  
Jack shook off his surprise in favour of stopping the three from running off into the streets by grabbing the girl's arm, the boy had disappeared again.  
  
"I know a place."


	2. Three Of A Name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A glimpse in to the Jacobs’ past

Sarah Jacobs was 8 years old when her youngest brother, Les, was born. It was the last two weeks she spent as a normal kid. As soon as she turned 9, a blast of energy left her palms and blasted a hole through her bedroom wall, David peaking past the hole with fear on his face. Her parents ran into the room and took her and her siblings into the kitchen before discussing in the other room. For the rest of her life, Sarah Jacobs was forced to stay in the apartment, homeschooled and dreaming of the outside world while she sat on the fire escape.

Things seemed grim, but got worse not even a year later when David turned 9. The morning of, the family heard a scream and ran into the bathroom, seeing nothing until his terrified form phased into sight, his toothbrush falling to the ground. David was already being homeschooled, due to their parents not wanting him to accidentally reveal something to the wrong people, so it wasn't much of a change from his regular life.

When the two became teenagers and Les was a toddler, Sarah got restless and started to sneak out. Due to the hole in their shared bedroom wall, David caught her one of the first times she left. David was a rule-follower but Sarah convinced him not to rat her out as long as she brought him back a souvenir every time she went out. That's how the older Jacobs siblings lived until the worst thing that could've transpired, transpired.

Two siblings both being mutants was rare but not unheard of, but three siblings was so rare that if they were weaponized, their caregivers would be paid handsomely. So when Les Jacobs turned 9 and ran through a closed door instead of into it, their parents couldn't do anything to hide it from the ever-prying eyes on the streets of New York. A week after Les' birthday showed a visit from a bigger man and two intimidating mutants, forcing a meeting with their parents. Before they were shoved into Sarah's room by Tweedledee and Tweedledum, their mother told them to run far, far away. They climbed down the fire escape, David disappearing as soon as their feet hit the ground.

When he smashed into someone standing by the wall. He made himself visible to apologize to the teenager who was dazed on the ground. Sarah and Les showed up by them not long after and before the three knew it, they were following the kid through alleyways and sidewalks. David ran faster to catch up to Sarah.

"Sarah, why are we following this guy?" He pointed out, "We have no clue who he is or where he's taking us. What if he's one of the guys who mother warned us about."

"Chill out David." Sarah said, "We need a place to go and he has one. If this is a trick, you can turn invisible and I can blast our way out of there."

David sighed, grabbing Les' hand so that he could keep up with them. "Sarah, we don't even know this guy's name."

"Hey, what's your name?!" Sarah yelled after the guy, who looked back and gave a smile that seemed to sparkle in the moonlight.

"Jack Kelly, how 'bout yous folks." He said with the strongest New York accent that David had ever heard.

"I'm Sarah, these are my brothers David and Les."

"Nice ta meet ya Sarah, Davey, Les." He winked and suddenly stopped right in front of a theatre. "Here we are, best safehaven in Manhattan."

"Safehaven?" David asked.

"Jack, where ya been?" A different voice called out, distracting Jack from answering the question.

"Found this bunch, runnin' from Weasel and the Delanceys." He stated, "Ya think Miss Medda would let 'em stay here?"

A boy limping his way to them, leaning on a crutch, smiled brightly. "Ya know she would love them, but ya should probably ask her first. You know what happened wit Sniper."

"Yeah yeah." He nods and slapped his hand onto David's shoulder, startling him. "Sarah, Davey, Les. This is Crutchie. Crutchie, Sarah, Les 'n Davey."

"It's David-"

"Nice ta meet ya folks, welcome to the home of the newsies!"


	3. Family Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some introductions are made

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments keep the story going :)

It wasn't hard to get Medda Larkin to agree to take in three more kids after they told their story to her. In fact, once Jack mention the name Wiesel, she was already convinced in their favour. As it was, the Newsies had a ritual for new kids, and although they hadn't done it in years, they got it ready as if they were warned and practiced it beforehand. A family meeting began with everyone sitting at various spots in the conference room that Medda freed up for them.

"So.. what do we have to do?" Sarah asked. On either side of her sat her brothers, she guessed it was because she was the only girl there and the boys didn't really know what to do about it.

"Well firstly, we goes around introducing ourselves 'n what our powers do." A boy who smelled faintly of nicotine replied, he winked, causing her to roll her eyes.

"I'm a lesbian in case you plan on hitting on me dickwad." She scoffed, crossing her arms as if challenging him.

"Aye, who says I ain't gay myself!" He laughed, changing his angle so he was winking at a boy wearing a backwards cap. The boy rolled his eyes and pushed the other boy lightly on the leg.

"Ain't no way I'm getting into yer pants again Race."

"Aw, c'mon Albert, ya know you love me."

When Race started making kissy faces at the other boy, Jack decided to stop the small talk and get right to the good stuff.

"My name's Jack, I've been here for most my life." He began, "I got an immunity mutation, so mutations generally don't affect me."

"I'm Crutchie! I have telepathy but I can control it pretty well so don't worry about me invading yer privacy or nothing."

"Racetrack Higgins at yer service, I'm possibly the fastest man alive." He winked

"Yeah, that applies to the bedroom too." Albert replied, causing all the boys in the room to react loudly and Race to grab the hat off the boy's head and stick his tongue out at him.

"Wait, wait, wait." Les spoke up. "Your folks called you Racetrack and Crutchie?"

"Les!" David exclaimed

"Ah, take ya stick out yer ass, my real name's Anthony, Crutchie's is Charlie. Some 'a us gots nicknames. Like Mush here is actually Mikey and Finch is Patrick and Jack is-" Jack glared at the boy, "Short for Jackass."

"Ah shuddup Race, Albert do ya wanna go?" Jack changed the topic back to its origin.

"I'll go later." He waved off the suggestion.

"Well my name is Specs, and I can do this!" A boy with wire-rimmed glasses then held up a piece of bread. His eyes turned red and a beam shot out of them, which in toasted it quickly. He proceeded to toss the toast over to Les, who ate is hungrily.

"Okay who's next?" Jack asked

"Whoa, whoa, Jack. We wanna know what these guys is." One of the other boys protested.

"Alright alright, you guys want to go next?"

"I'm Les! I can do this!" Davey tried to hold his brother back but he just goes through his hand and straight through the wall. A scream was heard on the other side and Les pops back into sight.

"They ain't got no clothes on in there!" The boy exclaimed.

"Les, go apologize!" Sarah points him back out the wall.

Everyone could hear the boy yelling his apology and then a bunch of women just laughing. "They says it's just their costumes!" Les explains once he comes back.

"Well, anyway, I'm Sarah. And I have energy blasts that I would rather not fire off in this lovely room." The eldest Jacobs sibling smiled pointedly.

The room filled with the newsies agreeing that that was probably in their best interest. Medda would not take kindly to a hole in the wall.

"What about you Davey?" Crutchie asked after a beat of silence

"Oh um.." Davey hesitated, looking towards his sister who just nodded. He still looked unsure as his eyes wandered around the sea of boys until they landed on the one that took them here.

Jack Kelly has the most sincere and supportive look on his face Davey had ever seen. And what a face- that is, he was cute- or uh, looked cool under pressure. Davey shook his head and closed his eyes, not wanting to see the others' reactions. But he could hear them well enough, gasps and exclamations of how it was 'awesome'.

"We ain't ever had an invisible boy before!" One of the boys who hadn't been introduced bounced excitedly in his seat.

"Calm down JoJo, we ain't gonna force them to help us prank the Delanceys or nothing. That shit's dangerous." Jack said

Davey allowed himself to come back into view. "Who're the Delanceys?"

"They's the boys who was with you." Jack replied

"Real mean fellas, mutants but Wiesel is their uncle so they was raised monsters." Racetrack added

Suddenly, as soon as Race finished his sentence a loud alarm started to blare, several of the boys jumped disappeared in one way or another, including Davey.

"What is that?!" Sarah yelled.

"Code red! Just stay out of sight 'n out of trouble!" Jack yelled back, "Boys! You know what to do! We'll continue introductions some other time! Sarah, Les! Follow Albert 'n Specs!"

Albert and Specs ushered everyone out of the room while Jack ran down the other hall. Specs typed in a code into a lone keypad on the wall and a book shelf made a loud click noise. Albert and Race helped to force it open and all the Newsies got inside the secret room. It wasn't much, a couple couches and a fridge in the corner. There were board games stacked on a shelf.

"What's happening?" Sarah asked Crutchie who had been the second to last one to limp through the door, followed by Albert who pulled the secret door closed.

"Well safehavens is legal, but Snyder the Spider comes for these checkups and if we ain't payin' no attention, he can subdue one 'a us and we's done for. Before we had this room, he almost got Elmer.”

“If that hadn’t been a duplication, I woulda got my ass down to the Refuge.” Another boy, Sarah assumed it was Elmer, added from his spot where a bunch of boys had gathered to play cards.

“What’s the Refuge?” Sarah asked

“Well if the captured is complacent, they turn ya into weapons. If not, ya die.” Albert answered, voice a little ragged from the heftiness of the door

“They can’t do that!” Les exclaimed

“Ah, pipe down shortstuff, Snyder does what he wants ‘n doesn’t give a shit otherwise. He’s got a brother on the force so it’d be our word against the cops.” Albert placed a hand on Les’ shoulder.

“And ain’t no judge going to believe a bunch of mutants before they’d believe them coppers.” Race added.

“Well how long are we in here for?” Sarah asked.

“Jack and Medda will deal with Snyder.” Race spit to the side after he said the name. “If it takes the rest ‘a the night, we got food over there and sleeping bags in the cupboards. This place is soundproofed and only four people in the world know the combination, so we is safe here.”

“In the meantime, ya should watch me kick Finch’s ass at blackjack.” Specs piped in.

“Not gonna happen!” Another boy yelled from further into the room.

Sarah laughed and held Les’ hand while they walked to the table with the others. Les stopped in order to pull on his sister’s hand.

“What’s up Les?”

“Where’s Davey?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here are the powers I’ve revealed so far:  
> Jack Kelly - Immunity  
> Davey - Invisibility  
> Sarah - Energy Blasts  
> Crutchie - Telepathy  
> Les - Phasing  
> Racetrack - Super Speed  
> Buttons - Healing  
> Specs - Heat Vision  
> Elmer - Self Multiplication


	4. Accidental Spying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Davey gets a little confused about where he’s supposed to be

When the alarm went off, Davey was startled into turning invisible. He could hear people yelling but not what they were saying. His head started to hurt so he followed the crowd as they all rushed to get out of the room. He saw Jack start running off, and thinking they were supposed to follow him, he ran after him. It wasn't until Jack almost ran into Medda Larkin that Davey realized he was the only one who followed the boy.

"Jack, he's just walking up to the building now. Did you get everyone safe?"

"Yes ma'am, told the Jacobs' to follow Spec 'n Albert."

Shit, Davey did not hear Jack say that. And who was walking up to the building? Davey decided to stay invisible and not alert Medda nor Jack to his presence. As long as he stayed invisible, he'd be fine.

"Alright Jack, I'll greet him but if he pushes past me, you know what to do." Medda walked off and Davey watched as Jack sighed and leaned against the wall.

"Fuckin' Snyder." Jack mumbled to himself before pushing off the wall and walking down to the lobby, Davey followed closely behind, making sure that his footsteps matched Jack's.

"Mr. Snyder, you were here two weeks ago, what could possibly be the problem?" Medda's voice rang out.

"I've gotten noise complaints Miss Larkin. I believe that gives me incentive to look around." A man who looked like he was trying desperately to seem like he was living in the 1800's said. "Now are there any new kids you've decided to take in?"

"You know that that is none of your business." Medda brought her arms to a cross.

Davey watched as the man hugged and turned his head to look straight at Jack. Studying his face, Davey could tell the other boy desperately wanted to run but was standing his ground.

"Kelly." The man's voice was seething with venom.

"Snyder, fancy seein' you again, on account 'a you don't have the jurisdiction to be here more than once 'a month if I look through the contract you signed." Jack stated with a confidence that Davey had never heard from anyone his age, not even on the tv.

"I told you boy, I received several noise complaints about your boys. Now where are they?"

"Ah ah ah, no can do. The lobby may be public works but anything past that is private property, and me 'n Miss Medda would be happy to address the noise complaints in the hotel's email, which every guest has the ability to email without need to contact you folks down at yer place 'a business. If any guests has problems, we'd be the first to hear about them so tell me, Snyder, who's noise is people complainin' about? 'Cause it sure as hell ain't ours."

Davey watched as Snyder grew speechless and simultaneously angry. He could practically see the smoke pouring out his ears. "One day Jack Kelly, you cant hide your boys forever."

Davey backed up as Snyder got real close to Jack, who was just smiling that damned cocky smile. Unfortunately, Davey backed up right into a wall and it made a thump sound, causing Snyder and Jack to look up at him. Davey stayed as quiet as possible, covering his mouth to muffle any sounds of heavy breathing he might have. Snyder apparently opted to ignore the noise as he turned and marched out, shouldering Medda Larkin our of his path. The woman shrieked and yelled after the man.

"Snyder! You are gunning for a restraining order!" She huffed and nodded at Jack who had been standing all in the same spot. "Alright dear, let the others know it's okay to come out now, and do tell JoJo to install a new camera in the back, a raccoon got to it."

Jack nodded as she left and turned around. Davey thought he was home free until two hands grabbed both of his arms and slammed him to the wall once more. Startled, Davey came into view.

"Are ya stupid Dave?" Jack asked pushing off the wall and letting go of Davey's wrists.

"Who was that?" Davey asked while he stepped away from the wall.

"Snyder! The spider! He's a real sweetheart, but you saw that." Jack scoffed, "You coulda been taken Davey."

"Taken where?"

Jack explained in full detail exactly what might occur if Snyder had taken notice of him. He also described the Refuge in sickening detail, kids were basically tortured, the screaming, the crying, the lack of proper food.

"Why the hell wouldya even follow me?" Jack finished his story with the question, swatting the taller boy's chest accusingly.

"I didn't mean to, I wasn't sure what was happening." Davey explained, "How'd you see me anyways? Even if I made a sound, you grabbed my arms like you knew."

Jack just laughed with no emotion behind it, "Seems like my mutation allows me to see an outline of ya if I know yous is around."

Davey frowned at that. It'd been 8 years since he got his power and was used to being able to just hide away from the world whenever possible. Now he was just told that someone was able to see him at his worst. He didn't like the sound of that.

"C'mon Davey, lets go get the others and we'll get dinner before we continue the introductions." Jack said after taking a loud sigh. They both walked down the hallway again and down further until they reached a random keypad on the wall.

Once Jack told everyone to emerge from the hidden room, Sarah and Les ran straight to Davey with relief on their faces.

"You absolute moron! What thw hell were you thinking David!" Sarah yelled loudly, wacking her brother in the head and then immediately hugging him close

"What happened?" Les asked, making the hug a group one.

"Sorry, I got confused, but I'm fine. I stayed invisible the entire time." Davey answered, "It'll never happen again."

The newsies let the family hug, gathering around Jack to hear what happened with Snyder. He just told everyone to stay alert and not to stay out late. None of them had cell phones due to having to pay for them themselves and the lack of need for some. So it would be impossible to contact the group if anything did ever happen. Jack set up a curfew for 10, causing a lot of the boys to whine a bit until a steely look from their fearless leader shut them up.

Jack nodded his approval of their sudden silence and noticed the Jacobs family was ready to go. He turned and announced that they were all going to get dinner at Jacobi's.

“And then straight back here, no more ‘a that shit you pulled last night.” Jack warned.

“Ah but Jack!!” One of the boys started to complain

“Nuh-uh, dinner, and then back here, no questions.”


	5. Roommates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And they were roommates

Turns out, dinner at Jacobi's consisted of the restaurant owner to ask the boys to form a single file line and then he would hand each of them paper bags with their names on them like they were off to their first day of school and he was their mother. Miss Medda had called ahead, so Mr. Jacobi was sure to make three more meals than usual. Afterward, they were ushered upstairs to an empty laundromat where it was explained that Medda bought the one floor and rented it out to Mr. Jacobi for extra restaurant space but he had never gotten around to remodelling the place. That might've been since over 20 boys were taking up that space every evening.

Mr. Jacobi had packed most of them a turkey sandwich and a small juice box. Some boys just had bottled water, some had ham sandwiches or a salad. They all ate, having multiple different discussions amongst one another. Davey picked at the sesame seeds on his bread as he looked around the room, watching all the other mutants. They seemed comfortable with each other, a set of twins were pushing each other around, Race, Albert, and Specs were laughing at a boy who had the sauce from the sandwich all over his face, Sarah and Les seemed to be having a lively conversation with Crutchie. The only one who looked as alone as Davey right now was Jack, who was in a corner, brooding or something.

The expression on Jack's face was unwelcoming, which is probably why all the boys were staying away. Davey continued staring at the guy for a couple more minutes without realizing it. If he wasn't sitting against a wall, he would've fallen backward when Jack met his eyes. He looked away quickly, pretending to be fixated on the opposite wall. He refused to look anywhere else until Jack's voice rang through the room, quieting everyone's current conversations to silence.

"Alright, most of us is finished, we is heading back now," Jack said, only causing a couple of the boys to complain lowly.

The boys who weren't finished packed up their food and they all walked back to the hotel. All of the boys plus Sarah piled into the conference room they were previously in before the alarm went off. There, more of the boys were introduced but due to the sun going down, they didn't have time to learn what each of their powers was, just that a boy named Buttons was a healer and another boy named Jojo had elasticity. Jack explained that since they would have to go work tomorrow, they would just have to figure out everyone else's powers on their own.

The group led the three siblings to the top floor of the building. Most of them trickled into their rooms until only Jack and Crutchie stood outside with them.

"So there's an empty room that none a' us use that two a' yous could share but it's just a queen inside the room n' no couch so I ain't sure if all three a' ya could fit comfortably," Jack states, pointing at a room close to the emergency exit, holding up a hotel key card he grabbed from the front desk on their way in.

"Jack's got space in his room!" Crutchie piped up before Jack could even think to stop him.

"Well that settles it, Les and I will stay in the empty room, David will stay with you!" Sarah smiles, briefly taking Les' hand after the young boy stole the key card from Jack's grasp.

Davey and Jack awkwardly made eye contact. It was quickly broken by Davey clearing his throat, nodding, and then opting to stare at his shoes instead of those pretty, uh, piercing green eyes.

"Alright! Holler at me if yous need anything!" Crutchie hobbled his way to his own room.

"Uh, yeah, well," Jack mumbled after the door to the blond's room shut. "Big day tomorrow, we better get to bed."

Davey followed Jack, shuffling his feet on the carpeted floor of the hall. Jack inserted his key card and a beep was heard, along with the click of a lock. Jack entered swiftly, holding the door so Davey could walk in and take a quick look around.

It wasn't anything special, something you'd probably find at a Super 8 except much cleaner and lived in. Jack had paints scattered around the room, one section of the floor was covered in a white tarp and an easel. While Davey looked around, Jack was placing new sheets and switching out pillows on one of the beds.

"We were supposed to get two floors of the hotel but after Miss Medda stopped taking in kids, there was no need for it. You, Les ,'n Sarah are the first guys here since the Sniper's dad incident." Jack rattled off as he smoothed down the bedsheets.

"What happened with Sniper's dad?" Davey asked, leaning against the desk full of Jack's little trinkets.

"Asshole came in here trying to kill his son, we brought him down without incident though, fucker can rot in jail for all I care." Jack answered, "That was four years ago, Medda hasn't let anyone stay here since, well except now."

Jack stepped away from the bed and motioned the other boy towards the bed. Davey just sat on the edge of it. He looked up at Jack, who had opted to fiddle with something in the corner.

"So are you a painter or something?" He asked, glancing at the paint cans in the corner.

"Or somethin'," Jack said, stopping what he was doing to look at Davey again. "I been paintin' the backdrops for Miss Medda since I was 13."

"Sounds like you're a painter."

"Not professionally, just a use of my leisure time. I gots a job anyway, Medda pays us an allowance for advertisin' her stuff." Jack thought for a bit. "Ya know if ya want I could probably take you 'round with me."

"I haven't been into town since I was 9."

"All the more reason ta go!"

"What about Snyder?"

"Oh please, that old man ain't got nearly as much stamina as us. He can't get close enough in the streets. 'Sides, you'll be with me and I'll actually be aware of yer presence."

Davey scrunched his face up indecisively. He thought about how he had missed almost a decade of living in the outside world and these boys got to go out every day. From what he learned, Jack was the leader of the group so it would make sense that he'd be safe with him. Plus, Sarah and Les would be fine with Miss Medda, she cared about the kids under her care. There really were not that many things that he could picture leading to a bad idea about going around town.

"Sure, I'll go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Powers That Were Revealed:
> 
> Jojo - Elasticity


	6. Them Brooklyn Boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack brings Davey and some of the newsies to deal with a problem.

Sarah and Les were allowed to sleep in while the boys made their way out. This time, all of the boys were awake and ready to start the day. They collected their pamphlets and were ready to go. Jack was quickly filling Davey in about his usual route and how long the day would be, but Finch walked up to them during the conversation.

"Hey, Jack! Me, Albert and Jojo need a new spot, Spot Conlon's cronies is invading the turf." Finch said, pointing his thumb behind him, where Jojo and Albert were.

"Don't tell me yous is still afraid of them Brooklyn boys." Jack rolled his eyes.

"We ain't afraid of nothing!" The boy got aggressively defensive.

"But we don't exactly got the powers to take it back." Jojo jumped in.

"It was Graves and Bart." Albert added, "You know I can't.."

Jack just nodded and sighed. Those two had very powerful mutations. Vince was able to manipulate people's emotions and Graves could temporarily raise and control the dead. It would be hard for those newsies to fight them off if it was just the three of them. He had to work out a whole new map if they couldn't drive out the Brooklyn safehaven.

"Who's Spot Conlon?" Davey asked

"Short fella with a bone to pick," Finch answered. "Leader of the Brooklyn safehaven, a real pain in the-"

"As short as he is, he's intimidating, not someone you'd want ta piss off," Jojo warned

"Him and his boys work at a restaurant in exchange for lodging down in Brooklyn. We don't like crossing paths so we don't." Jack added, "Hey, what if me 'n Davey come with you? I'll get Specs to cover my space."

"You're bringin' the new kid to Brooklyn?" Race's voice came out of nowhere, making the others jump. They had felt a slight wind earlier so they knew he had just sped over here.

"Can we put a bell on him?" Jojo whined, causing him and Race to begin to push each other around.

"Look, we can't bring all of the Newsies to Brooklyn, but we needs all the help we can get," Jack explained over the hissy fit.

"Well, I could never leave my post boss." Race pushed away Jojo long enough for him to place a hand over his chest in mock exasperation.

"To see Spot Conlon? Yous would probably pay all the coins ya had in yer bank." Albert smirked.

"I do not have a crush on Spot Conlon, I's never met the guy!"

"Yeah, but yous saw his face." Finch laughed, making missy faces at the blond.

Davey looked at Jack for some explanation, but the dark-haired leader just made a tight-lipped smile and shrugged. Davey narrowed his eyes but let it go and when he turned back, all four of the other newsies were wrestling. Jojo had somehow kept onto Race's back, Albert was trying to pry him off, and Finch was attempting to push Race off his balance.

Jack rolled his eyes at the scene and walked over to where he saw Specs and Henry talking. He talked over stuff with Specs, agreeing that he could have his mashed potatoes in exchange for covering him today. He also asked Henry to cover Race's spot, which he had immediately agreed to since it was so close to his own.

He walked back to see that somehow, the boys had roped Davey into their play fight, and Finch was attempting to body slam the boy to the ground while the taller boy tried to get Albert to stop trying to kick Race in the crotch.

"Hey! Hey! Is we going to Brooklyn or what?!" Jack yelled, and they all untangled themselves from each other and followed after him as he left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Race, Finch, and Jojo were all standing, waiting for Albert, Davey, and Jack right outside a movie theatre. Jojo had hooked onto Finch's back as he floated above the ground and grabbed Race's shoulders. The other three were forced to walk at a normal pace. The walk wasn't long so they weren't as behind as they could've been.

"Okay, this is where them Brooklyn boys invaded our Manhattan space." Jojo pointed, tossing a toothpick he had been chewing into a nearby trash can.

"Alright, we're just gonna have a nice friendly conversation, okay? None of that shit you n' Mush pulled last year, Finch." Jack pointed at the mentioned boy, "I'll give ya a signal if I think things are gonna get ugly, and we get outta here."

"But what if-" Race started

"If we really want this spot, we talk to Miss Medda, we rally the other newsies, we come back. If it is just Graves n' Bart, we'll be a-okay, but uh Albert. Stay far back, yeah?" Jack motioned all of them to follow them into the street.

Davey counted four boys standing in the middle of the sidewalk, handing out flyers of some sort. They were all wearing red and they were all jacked. The short one's bicep was probably bigger than both of his combined.

"Hey, Spot!" Jack yelled out, the other five followed behind.

"Well ain't that a pretty face." The short boy turned and smirked, his arms crossed. "What can I do ya for Jack Kelly?"

"Seems you've been invading Manhattan territory Spot, now I thought we settled this disagreement already?" Jack replied, a smile on his face, venom in his voice.

Davey caught the eye of the short boy. The taller boy nodded nervously to acknowledge the eye contact but quickly looked away. He desperately wanted to turn invisible at that moment.

"Issat a new face Kelly? I thought Medda Larkin wasn't takin' any new boys until yous were all off ta Santa Fe?" Spot let out a humourless breath of laughter and allowed himself to look at the rest of the Manhattan group. "This ain't quite the fighting group ya got Jack."

"Six ta four, shortass! Ya ain't got nothin' on us!" Race started to walk forward but Albert pulled him back.

"Ya wanna try yer odds, boys?" Spot cracked his neck and uncrossed his arms.

"We didn't come here for no fight Conlon," Jack replied with a calculated tone.

"Then how do ya suppose we settle this?"

Jack did not seem prepared to answer the question. He glanced back at the rest of the Newsies with a puzzled look, none of the others looked too sure of themselves either. Jack looked back at the Brooklyn gang and opened his mouth, just praying that whatever happened to come out wasn't stupid.

"Hey! There is no need for any competition! Split the land in half, you both take one. No harm, no foul." A female voice broke through the intensity. All the boys looked to see a redheaded girl wearing something too formal for this part of this city. "Now, I think it'd be best if you and your gang head to the other side of the street Spot. Unless you want me to report you to your superior again."

Spot looked nervous as he motioned for the other three in his group to follow to the other side of the road. The girl smiled cockily and turned to face Jack.

"That's real sweet of ya, but you really do gotta stop saving my ass Plumber." Jack went in to hug the girl.

"Oh please, if it weren't for me, the Newsies wouldn't have any ground to stand on that isn't owned my Medda Larkin." The girl stepped back from the hug and immediately looked straight to Davey. "But I do wanna know who the new kid is."

"Ah, right right. Davey, this is Katherine Plumber, she runs a successful blog and podcast with her other rich friends. Katherine, this is Davey, he and his family encountered a Delancey incident last night so we took 'im in." Davey instinctively shot out his hand to give her a handshake. She had a firm grip, like a professional.

"Nice to meet you, Davey! Sorry about what happened. And yes I run a blog but my friends and I are not that rich." Katherine laughed.

"You, Bill n Darcy got a leg up on all of us if we is being honest." Finch butted in.

"How do you know each other?" Davey asked.

"Jack and Kat used to date." Race sped over to Katherine to put an arm around her shoulders.

"Way in the past Race, but yes. We met when a bunch of the boys were stomping around here when my dad still owned the place." Katherine nudged Race off of her playfully. "I snuck the ones around here inside when he called Snyder on them. My dad's not a huge fan of mutants."

"I'll say." Jojo said, "Last time I ran into him, he sicked his Delancey dogs on my ass."

"Your dad works with the Delancey brothers?" Davey looked expectantly at the redhead.

"My dad is Joseph Pulitzer."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Powers Revealed In This Chapter:  
> Finch - Flight  
> Bart - Emotion Manipulation  
> Graves - Necromancy


	7. Not Quite Royalty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A visit to Katherine's apartment.

Joseph Pulitzer was known throughout the city as notoriously speaking in favour of weaponizing mutants. Pulitzer owned the biggest news source you could ever get in New York, his stories were everywhere. He had somehow worded it so more than half the city agreed with his beliefs and only the country's laws kept the mutants of New York City safe. He was a powerful man with horrible motives.

That's why Davey was quite surprised to see that his daughter was the opposite. After the revelation that Katherine was essentially the daughter of the most intimidating man in the city, she immediately invited the group over to her apartment. But she failed to explain that by apartment, she really meant penthouse.

Davey lived with his mom, dad, brother, and sister. Sarah had her own room, their parents had their own room, and Les and Davey shared one. They also had a kitchen, a living room, and two bathrooms, so you couldn't say that the Jacobs family wasn't well off. Yet Katherine's place was probably four times bigger than he was used to. The sliding glass door that led to the balcony provided a great view of the city, making the whole thing seem even bigger.  
The group of boys gathered on the terrace and watched the people going around the city. Sometimes they spotted friends but they were too far up for anyone on the street to hear them over the traffic.

"You boys have lunch yet? I think Bill's making ravioli." Katherine asked after a couple of minutes of the boys being awed by the sights.

All the boys enthusiastically agreed and the redhead led them back inside and to the kitchen. A guy in an apron with slicked-back hair turned away from the oven to face the newcomers.

"Oh hey, Kath! I didn't know we were having guests." The man smiled. "Oh, I haven't met you before, I'm Bill."

The blue-eyed man stretched out the hand that was not holding the wooden spoon towards Davey, who shook it firmly and gave a small nod. "David."

"Found the guys almost start something with Spot Conlon again," Katherine explained. "Are we okay for food?"

"You know I always make extra in case our folks do a surprise check-in." Bill laughed and turned back to his pot on the oven. "Can one of you call Darcy down from the study? He's going to work until he drops if no one shakes him out of it."

Katherine left the room at Bill's request, leaving the newsies and the cooking man in the kitchen. Almost immediately after she left, Race, Albert, and Finch got into a loud argument about who knows what. Jojo laughed at them and ushered them out through the doors, saying something about them knowing Katherine forbade hissy fits in her kitchen. That left Bill, Jack, and Davey alone.

"So uh, how's it goin' with you 'n Darce? Did ya tell your parents yet?" Jack asked Davey tuned in, curious to what Jack meant by that.

"Well, you know how my father is. We told Darcy's folks though, his mom looked so relieved. You should've seen her, she said she thought Darcy would be single forever." Bill laughed as he stirred in some spices. "His dad wasn't surprised apparently. Could tell he wasn't into guys all too much apparently."

At that, it finally clicked that Katherine's roommates were together. Before he could stop himself, he started to speak, "Why would they be surprised?"

Bill turned quickly as if he thought it was just him and Jack in the room. He stared at Davey for a bit and shook his head, turning back to the pot. "My dad's William Hearst Sr, his dad is Whitelaw Reid."

"Wait you're-"

"William Hearst Jr? Yeah."

The Hearst name was lesser known than the Pulitzer name, but still a big player in the population fearing mutants. The Reids were on the other side of the argument, not quite supporting mutants but urging people to not make life so hard for them. With that explanation, it made sense that their parents wouldn't want them dating. The Reids and Hearsts were constantly bashing each other in their articles and online interviews.

"Bill got an earful when his parents found out he was living with a Reid and helping run a podcast with the competition." Davey turned and saw another man who seemed too dressed up to have just been lounging around enter. "My parents weren't too thrilled either but Bill's the middle kid."

The man, probably Darcy based on the quick kiss he gave Bill after walking up to him, went to shake Jack and Davey's hands. Katherine entered the kitchen again with the rest of the newsies in the building right behind her. It was perfect timing because Bill was dividing up the meal in a matter of minutes. Katherine, Bill, Darcy, and Davey sat at the dining table. Jack stood beside Davey, leaning his right arm on the table and using the fork with his left. Jojo and Finch were sat atop the kitchen island, legs hanging, their plates on their laps. Race had somehow climbed onto the fridge, and Albert sat on the floor, legs crossed.

"So David, how long have you been with the newsies?" Darcy asked as he reached for the parmesan.

"Almost a full day now." Davey shrugged, "it's just been me and my family up until yesterday."

"They was runnin' from the Delanceys," Jack added, placing his hand casually on Davey's backrest.

"Ugh, I hate those guys," Katherine mumbled.

"Wait, they?" Bill questioned.

"My sister, Sarah, and my little brother., Les." Davey answered, "They stayed at the hotel."

"Speaking of the hotel, we should probably headin' back or the fellas'll get worried," Jack said, popping the last piece of ravioli on his plate into his mouth. "Thanks for the meal Bill."

"Not a problem!" The blue-eyed man nodded

"Hey, Kath, you should invite them to that thing happening this weekend." Darcy nudged at the girl with his elbow.  
"What thing?" Race asked, hopping down from the fridge.

"Well, I'm hosting a fundraiser for the Safehaven Foundation. It would be great if all the newsies could make it. A large mutant attendance could help make some sympathy donations." Katherine said, "Plus Medda is scheduled to perform, along with a bunch of the other theatre workers."

The other newsies in the apartment, other than Jack and Davey, seemed elated by the idea of attending what was bound to be a fancy event. They whispered among themselves and studied Jack's face, hoping he would consider.

"You know we's don't got black tie options." Jack pointed out.

"There's a simple solution to that one, one of our sponsors is a tailor who would be more than happy to lend your guys some fancy threads." Darcy stayed, "And I'd be more than happy to reach into that unlimited Reid family fortune to pay for it all."

"We can't take your money, Darcy." Jack sighed, sparing a glance at the begging faces of his family.

"This is more for our benefit than yours, plus I'm sure you'd all be happy to get out of that relentless schedule for once." Katherine motioned at the boys who were nodding their heads so quickly that Jack was afraid they'd pop off their necks.

Jack looked at every face in the room, sighed, and gave a defeated nod. There was no way he would be able to say otherwise without a riot happening. The newsies cheered.

"Alright, alright. We got to go now. I'll send over a boy tomorrow to get information on the fitting day."

Jack led his boys out and they walked back to the hotel. Race was actually walking at normal speed, probably so he could talk about his excitement to the others. Jack found himself walking side by side with Davey as the other four walked a ways behind them. Jack turned his head toward the dark-haired boy.

"You ever been to a party Davey?" Jack asked, causing the other boy to look up and make eye contact.

"Not since I was 8." He responded, "I'm assuming they're different when you're practically an adult."

"They're different when the point of the party is to stand around 'n look pretty while ya hope people are generous enough to spend a little for a cause that benefits you." Jack slung his arm onto Davey's shoulder, "The Safehaven foundation ain't too popular on account 'a not many people like us, but it helps Miss Medda keep the space open for us without losing money for herself."

Davey nodded his understanding and they continued to walk in silence, the arm around his shoulder was strangely comforting.

The small feeling of safety was soon shattered when they heard a yell from behind them. Jack's arm slid away and the two turned to see Finch, Jojo, and Race surrounding Albert, who was curled up into a ball on the floor. Davey, confuses, looked around to see what might've happened, and spotted one of the boy's in red from earlier that day darting into an alley.


	8. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Manhattan goes to Brooklyn to get some answers

Jojo helped a very panicked Albert climb onto Finch's back. Finch flew home and Race helped run everyone back so the redhead wouldn't only be with Finch when he got there. Davey felt disoriented after Race ran him there, but he was able to help carry Albert to his room.

Albert's room wasn't messy, but not neat either. There were three boxes of salt on the desk, which Jojo grabbed immediately and poured it on the window sills and doorways. Davey decided not to question it and watched from a distance as Race held Albert close to him and whispered into his ear. Jack was in the corner of the room on the phone, talking in a hushed voice to who Davey assumed was Medda Larkin. Not knowing what to do in this situation, he turned to Finch, who was also doing nothing at this moment.

"What happening? And who was the Brooklyn guy who ran off?" Davey asked quietly.

Finch had a look of realization on his face which was soon masked with suppressed rage. "Of course it was Graves." He muttered.

"Who's Graves?"

Their conversation was cut short by a knock on the door. A muffled voice let them know it was Buttons, Tommy Boy, and Elmer. Jack yelled a confirmation that they could enter and Davey almost fell backward at the flash of blue light. As soon as the initial blinding flash faded, three other boys stood where it was. Davey recognized them from last night but he was only introduced to Buttons before that moment.

Buttons and a boy with black hair were hanging onto blond boy's arms as they appeared in the room but immediately let go to go over to where Albert and Race sat. The other boy, who was also wearing a hat that seemed too big for him, as he was tilting his head back to see in front of him, walked over to Finch and Davey.

"How's he doin'?" The boy asked.

"Better but ya should've seen him before," Finch responded with a solemn look on his face.

The other boy nodded and turned his attention towards Davey, "Hey, I'm Tommy Boy, before you ask, I can teleport." Another flash of blue saw Tommy Boy now standing behind Davey.

Davey turned quickly, only slightly less confused than before. "So who's this Graves guy?"

"Graves?" Tommy Boy's eyes seemed to darken despite them not being very visible. "Ya sure it was him?"

"Davey saw a Brooklyn boy, if it was anyone other than Graves, Albert wouldn't've had an episode," Finch jerked his thumb towards where the black-haired boy Davey didn't know was in the position Race had been earlier. Buttons was grasping Albert's head in his hands as well, an aura of blue around them.

"Didja tell Jack?" Tommy asked, glancing to where Jack was still on the phone.

"Not yet."

Davey turned his focus towards the bed where Albert was calming down. Jojo had finished spreading out salt and was comfortingly hugging a now standing Buttons from behind. Race was kneeling at the foot of the bed, staring. Elmer was still holding Albert closely, whispering.

Jack finally finished up with his phone call and approached the three boys who were not close to Albert. "Medda says we gotta leave 'im with Buttons since we don't know what's goin' on."

"Hey Jack, Davey saw Graves leavin' the scene a' the crime." Jack's expression dropped at Finch's words, he swung his gaze over to Davey, "You absolutely sure?"

"I- I mean I saw one of the guys from earlier. The ones in red."

"Fuck." Jack swore quietly. "Tommy Boy, teleport everyone out of the room except Buttons and Albert. And are the rest of the boys back from their rounds?"

"Everyone except Specs and Henry."

"Alright, Finch, get all the fighters we got and we're gonna pay a visit to Spot's home base."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
Davey found himself waiting on the curb outside the hotel with Jack, Tommy Boy, Jojo, and Race. Finch was still inside gathering up the boys and Albert had asked Elmer to stay with him while Buttons did the routine check-up. The group of boys turned to the door when they heard the footsteps of a lot of the Newsies. Ten more newsies came out, looking ready for a fight.

"Alright, that seems like everyone-" Jack states as they came through the entryway, "Where's Finch?"

"Right here, boss!" Finch ran out and trailing behind him closely was Sarah Jacobs.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You ain't coming with us." Jack motioned towards Davey's sister.

"And why the hell not? From what I know, I'm the best chance you got at facing those other guys!" Sarah huffed, crossing her arms. Davey didn't know who he should look at.

"It's dangerous!" Jack countered, "My boys know what we're up against and you don't!"

"Oh what, you're bringing my little brother?" Sarah pointed at Davey, who took a step back so he didn't get caught in the crossfire.

"Your brother is there to be lookout with Sniper in case things go sour. Brooklyn can't see him, so he can get away and give Miss Medda the rundown."

Everyone jumped when Sarah held out her arm and blasted a hole in the hanging sign of the general store across the street. There was a large hole where the 'O' in store used to be and it was now smoking. The sign was swinging and soon fell off its chain, the wood broke into several pieces as it hit the ground.

"You ain't gonna take no are ya?" Jack sighed after studying the damage done. The girl stood her ground, unspeaking, so he turned to Davey who shrugged. "Fine, but ya gotta stick with Finch, and don't kill anyone, we're teaching them a lesson not ending their suffering. And you have to build a new sign for Mr. Millerton."

Sarah's stoicism quickly changed into a bright, beaming smile. She winked at Davey and happily skipped along as the boys started walking to Brooklyn. Davey stole a glance at Finch's expression and he seemed less worried about having to look after someone than the fact that that person would be Sarah, as he was still staring wide-eyed at the broken sign. When they were almost there, a boy from the group grabbed Davey by the arm.

"Hey, we gotta climb and keep watch." The boy said, nodding his head up at a fire escape.

Davey looked up and saw that the building had the perfect height to look down at the street and be able to hear conversations as long as they weren't whispering. He looked back at the boy, who he assumed was Sniper and nodded, following him up.

The roof was flat, a place where the people who lived there could probably take a smoke break if they were into that. It had a short wall lining the roof that was the perfect height to kneel and still see over. Davey instinctively turned invisible as they leaned over to watch, and saw that Sniper was rubbing his hands together as frost began to settle on his skin.

"I hope you're still there, because my aim ain't the best, so you'll have a better shot of getting out of here." Sniper demonstrated what he meant by turning and holding his arm out to a bottle of liquor someone left out. He missed, hitting the building's AC unit instead, the large box freezing over quickly.

Davey quickly made himself seen once he realized what had just happened, "Uh, yeah, still here."

They both turned and watched the exchange that had started below. Davey faded from sight once again and Sniper got ready to freeze something on Jack's command

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Spot Conlon!" Jack yelled outside, the restaurant was closed at this point today, so he knew that they would all be home by now. "We need ta have some words!"

A minute later, the Newsies were standing across the street to the entire Brooklyn gang, minus one.  
"What do ya want Kelly? Ya got half of that turf, I thought we was done." Spot said once everyone was ready to defend.

"We're done when Jack gets one good blow at yer smug mug!" Race started to move forward but Jack pushed him back.

Spot smirked at the blond before going back to glaring darts at Jack. "If ya lookin' ta fight Jack, just say the word."

"We wanna know why you sent your boy to mess with Albert," Jack said.

Spot faltered at that. He looked very confused, taking a glance at his gang. "I- Joey, where's Graves?"

"Never came back from patrol boss." A small female said.

Spot soon became very concerned and then looked back at the Newsies. "What happened?"

"Like you don't know!" Race yelled

"He went catatonic, and one a' my boys saw him runnin' away afterward." Jack intervened before Race got them into more trouble.

"I- I never did that. I never sent him nowhere." Spot said, "Believe me, if we wanted to go after you, we would've gotten to more than just the one guy."

"Well then who-" Jack started to get heated but then Jack's phone started to ring. He held up his hand after seeing the caller ID was Buttons. "Hello?"

"Jack! Fuck! It was a trap! You gotta get back here before-"

The line went dead.

Jack looked up at Spot, "How would ya feel about a little Manhattan-Brooklyn team-up?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Powers revealed in this chapter:  
> Tommy Boy - Teleportation  
> Sniper - Cold & Ice Manipulation


	9. Raided

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The newsies come home to see things aren't quite how they left them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the lovely comments you've been leaving! They really do help inspire me to keep writing this!

It took some convincing, but once Spot understood that one of his boys was also in danger, their group of 17 became 24. The group ran back to the hotel once Sniper and Davey climbed down from the roof.

Once the majority of them got there, they saw Race, who had been there for a while now, dodging lasers coming from Specs' eyes. Jojo, Spot, and Finch quickly went off to help them. The rest of them were about to enter the building to find out what was happening when a crowd of Elmers spilled out through the doors, all of them having the same stoic face as if they were robots.

"What is happening?" Davey asked Jack, who stood beside him.

"One of the Delanceys got a mind control power. Once we knock them out, they'll be free of it." Jack said, pounding his fist into an open palm. "We just gotta find the real Elmer first."

With that, Jack yelled out a loud charge, and the group starting attacking the multiples of the same boy. Henry had also come out to play and was currently helping Specs try to kill the four boys on him.

Sarah took to blasting once Jack quickly explained that the real Elmer had brown eyes and his duplicates had green ones. Sniper and two of the Brooklyn members were tag-teaming in an elemental storm. One of the boys that Davey hadn't met had grown to be half the size of the building and started swinging the fake Elmers around into the ground.

Davey turned invisible and tried to sneak his way into the building, but unfortunately, one of the clones had seen him to that and went to punch him in the face. Out of nowhere, a cat came clawing at the clone's face, who soon dissolved into thin air. Davey let himself be seen again in confusion when another boy came running up. Before his eyes, Davey saw the cat turn into a human with similar, if not the exact same, features as the one who had just arrived. The twins grinned as the one who had not been a cat morphed into an exact replica of Davey's own face and they ran off again.

Davey shook off the strangeness of what just occurred and went invisible again, this time being successful to get into the building. Inside, he couldn't see anyone. He knew there were not many guests checked in today and Medda had left a note at the front counter saying that she was at the theatre, so he ran up to the top floor of the building.

The floor was trashed. Decorative plants were knocked over, the wallpaper did nothing to hide a dent that looked at though was made by a body slamming against it. He glanced at Albert's door and saw that it was kicked in, the door off its hinges.

He went inside and it was like a hurricane had formed since he was there last. The table and television were smashed, Albert's collection of salt was spewed across the room, the bed was stripped of its sheets and a lamp had smashed through the balcony windows.

"Fuck." Davey breathed as he realized Albert was nowhere to be found. He ran to the balcony and slid the door open, stepping around the broken glass. He made sure he was still invisible as he peeked over the railing to see that Race, Jojo, Finch, and Spot managed to knock Henry and Specs out since the two were on the ground and the four were now helping with the sea of Elmers. He watched as the small Brooklyn girl was stopping many clones where they stood and kicking them out of existence.

Watching her made him remember that Les had been in the building when they left. He ran back inside, making himself seen and ran straight to his siblings' shared room. His heart dropped when he saw that that door had also been kicked in and although he had not been in that room, it was probably in much worse shape than it had been before they left for Brooklyn. He cursed himself for not being there and looked around for any clues to where his brother might be.

"I know where they went." A voice from behind him said. Davey whipped around, grabbing a nearby book and getting ready to hit whoever was behind him.

"Whoa! It's fine, it's me!" Crutchie held up a hand and hobbled out of Davey's reach.

"How do I know you aren't mind-controlled!?" Davey yelled, knowing full well that he did not look that menacing with a book as a weapon.

"Oscar's mind games don't work on me. I'm telepathic. I couldn't stop them from gettin' your brother, Buttons, and Al, though." Crutchie frowned, he walked forward but Davey stepped back, the book still handy. Crutchie sighed, "I climbed into a crawl space in my closet when I heard Buttons mentally telling me that somethin' bad was happenin'. They trashed my room too but never found me. I tried telling Les to get out of there too but I guess they found him."

"Well if they were taking kids, why'd they leave Elmer, Specs, and Henry?" Davey said, still wary of trusting that Crutchie was in control.

"Well Specs and Henry got back afterward, I tried sending them a message but by then it was too late. And Elmer isn't here, all the guys down there are clones he was forced to create before they took him."

Davey processed the information and ran to the balcony in this bedroom. He opened the door and yelled out to Jack.

"None of them are Elmer!" Jack looked up at him, saw that Crutchie was standing behind him, and nodded. He yelled something that they couldn't quite hear and everyone stopped checking eye colour and started taking down the Elmers more effectively.

Soon all of the clones were gone and Finch flew up to give Crutchie and Davey a lift down, one at a time.

"How bad is it?" Jack asked as Davey's feet touched solid ground.

"Buttons, Elmer, Albert, and Les are missing," Davey reported, he heard Sarah gasp somewhere in the group.

"Crutchie?" Jack asked, turning to his brother.

"Couldn't get much, but I think I got a location from Morris." He supplied, unfolding a piece of paper from his pocket.

"Why would they be after them?" Spot asked, walking up with the same intimidating demeanor as usual.  
Jack grabbed the paper from Crutchie and handed it over to Race. Race took it and ran off to get the gist of location. Jack then turned to the Brooklyn leader.

"If my hunch is correct, they also took your boy, Graves. Graves and Albert are a deadly combination of they use their powers together." Jack explained. "Plus with Buttons gone, we don't got no second chances. If we down and bleeding, we stop fighting, done's done. I guess Elmer and Les were just some unexpected collateral."

"Graves and Albert?" Sarah asked, stepping to the front of the crowd.

"Graves is Brooklyn's very own necromancer." Jack explained, "Albert can see the dead. If ya train 'em together, they's a team that could get a whole lotta money from them weaponizers. Albert'd be trained to attract the most dangerous deceased, Graves could bring 'em to life and control him to his will.

It suddenly clicked in Davey's head as to why Albert kept salt everywhere. Salt allegedly kept ghosts away in supernatural folklore. If the Delanceys actually had Graves, he must have sent  
random ghosts to spook the hell out of Albert earlier.

"We gotta go rescue them!" Jojo's voice cut through the murmurs of the group. Davey looked and saw his face was close to tears. Finch reached out and patted him on the back.

Davey then remembered that Jojo and Buttons had been very close earlier that day in Albert's room. He probably should start paying more attention to detail and he'd get more context clues into the dynamic of the newsies.

"And we will! Ain't no Delancey gonna get away with taking our own."

"Or one a' ours." Spot agreed, showing that Brooklyn was behind them 100%.

"Jack!" Race skidded to a stop in front of Jack. "I found 'em."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Powers Revealed in this Chapter:  
> Elmer: Self-Multiplication  
> Oscar Delancey: Mind Control  
> Hotshot: Fire Manipulation  
> Splasher: Water Manipulation  
> Smalls: Size Shifter  
> Mike: Animal Shape-Shifter  
> Ike: Human Shape-Shifter  
> Joey: Freeze People In Time  
> Graves: Necromancy  
> Albert: Can See The Dead


	10. Deceased

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albert's POV

Albert DaSilva grew up with his two older brothers and his loving parents. None of them were mutants, nobody in their family had ever had a drop of mutant blood. It didn't even seem a likely option for that to happen.

So the night before his 9th birthday, he and his family were taking a road trip from their place in Boston to his grandma's place in New York. They'd have cake and he'd get presents. Albert was not supposed to be a mutant.

When the clock struck midnight, the red-headed boy began seeing flashes of people glowing white. He chalked it up to the weird energy drink he had earlier and ignored it. He couldn't ignore the apparition he saw stick its head through the roof of the car, it's eye pierced with some sort of spear. He screamed as the ghost howled in pain.

It caused his father to swerve into oncoming traffic where a truck was barreling past. The right side of the car was crushed, killing his mom and his oldest brother. Albert had woken up seconds after being knocked out. He saw another figure who was glowing bluish-white, but this time he recognized him.

"Get up and run." His older brother urged.

Albert undid his seatbelt and saw that his other brother and dad were still out for the count. He heard sirens wailing so he ran. He ran until he collapsed in an empty alleyway. His right side was covered in blood, so he ripped up his shirt in an attempt to wipe it off. That's when Jack Kelly found him and took him to Medda's.

Albert never talked about what happened or why he was covered in blood the day he was taken in, but a couple of months later he met Racetrack Higgins. They hit it off well and began dating when they were 14. Race never cared where he came from, or why his New York accent had a twinge of Boston in it. Too bad the relationship didn't work out, but they remained best friends.

When they were coming back from Katherine's apartment was the first time he had seen his brother's face since the accident. He had to take a double-take because he was used to seeing ghosts everywhere, but that was his brother. He would've been happy if it weren't for the words his brother said to him.

"It's your fault me and mom are dead." And then the ghost lunged at him, Albert yelled, falling to the ground. In his head, he just heard taunts of how he shouldn't have run, how he should've been the one to die that night. It was the first time in a long time since he ever thought about that night.

He remembered being taken to the hotel, Race holding him close to comfort him, Race trading places with Elmer, Elmer being there while Buttons tried to soothe his headache. Elmer, he remembered asking Elmer to stay while the others went to Brooklyn and- oh fuck. The Delanceys broke in somehow, Elmer went to fight them. Elmer made eye contact with Oscar for too long...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next thing Albert knew he was waking up in a caged cell, Buttons was hugging his knees in one of the corners. In the cell next to them there was the little boy that came to live with them yesterday, passed out. In the same cell was-

"Fuck!" Albert scooted to the far end of his shared cell after seeing Graves.

"Don't flatter yourself DaSilva, even if I cared, I couldn't do nothin'. This cage has power dampeners 'cause that kid could phase through if it didn't," The Brooklyn boy scoffed. "Oh and don't worry, your cell is power dampening free since yous couldn't escape anyway."

Albert glared at the boy in red who turned to take a nap. Albert then decided to focus on the only other awake person in the room as far as he could tell, Buttons. Unfortunately, the healer seemed a little too freaked out to talk distraction.

Buttons was picking at the buttons on the cuffs of his sleeves, something he only did when he was feeling especially nervous.

"Shit, Buttons," Albert called, remembering the rule Medda had about not touching someone when they were in that state so they don't get startled. "Buttons!"

Buttons kept staring at a space on the floor.

"Benj, fuckin' snap out of it!" Albert yelled Buttons' real name, a name only Medda ever used anymore. That got Buttons to snap his head up so he made eye contact with Albert, tears already in his eyes.

"Albert." Before the redhead could process, the other boy had enwrapped him in a tight hug. Albert hugged him back, rubbing circles into his back to silently tell him it was okay. "Fuck Al, I wanna go home. We're.. we're gonna get trained. We're gonna get weaponized. I-We'll never see Jojo, or Jack, or-or Race-"

"Buttons, calm the hell down. Ya know your boyfriend would sooner die than let happen." Albert said, grabbing and pushing the boy's shoulders so he was staring into his eyes.

"I- yeah. Yeah, you're right." The brunet sighed, slumping his back against the bars after Albert let him go.  
Albert looked around the room once more. It was empty but spacious, they were in the middle of the room.

He tried looking around for any ghosts that could tell them where they were but even the spirit world seemed empty. He scanned the walls of the room again. It was dark and hard to see as the only light was a simple lamp swinging from the roof above their cages. Once his eyes had adjusted he spotted a door and someone standing beside it.

"Elmer?" Albert questioned, pressing his face between the bars so he could get a better look. "Elmer!"

Elmer's eyes were unfocused, unresponsive. He didn't react to Albert's call at all.

"He's whammied." Graves laughed in the other cage. "He can't react."

"You ain't helping," Albert said, still keeping his eyes on the boy standing just outside. "He's gonna be okay though right?"

"If we can get out of here, yes."

There was a large steel lock on the door of the cage, Albert tried prying it apart but it was no use. A healing mutation and a seeing the dead mutation would not be useful to get them out of here, which was probably why the Delanceys didn't waste their time using a power dampening cage as they did for Graves and Les.  
Albert slammed the bars in frustration, scaring a little brown mouse that had wandered in.

Wait.

A little mouse?

The mouse changed before his eyes into a familiar face. Mike smiled at them and tried the lock, which still wouldn't budge. The animal shifting twin did not have time to try a second time as Elmer apparently had preset orders to take down anyone that came to their rescue.

Elmer swung at Mike's head, who stopped the fist with one of his. He turned into a falcon and flew up out of reach, clawing at the arms that tried to reach up. Elmer recoiled, scowling at the scratches it left. Albert and Burton's watched as Elmer began to duplicate himself to fight the shifter.

Thankfully at that moment, the door of the warehouse exploded inwards. Spot Conlon standing behind it, cracking his knuckles. Standing behind the short boy was a bunch of the newsies, looking ready to fight.  
Jack, who was standing next to Spot, spotted a multiplying Elmer. "Not this shit again."

The group ran forwards, attacking the clones and trying to find the real Elmer so they could knock him out. The girl, Sarah, was running up to their cage, Jojo was not far behind. Davey and Spot were at the one holding Les and Graves.

"It's a heavy lock, I doubt you'll be able to-" Albert started, but before he could finish, Spot yanked apart the lock on the other cage and Sarah blasted the lock into pieces.

"Shit." Albert laughed.

Davey had scooped up a still unconscious Les from the inside of his cage while Spot and Graves were having a little reunion. Sarah helped Albert and Buttons out, Buttons immediately making a beeline for Jojo to catch him in a hug.

"Thanks." Albert nodded towards her in gratitude.

"Yeah sure," Sarah shrugged, "Now get out of here, Crutchie's at the hotel with some of Brooklyn to hold the fort in case the Delanceys went there."

Albert nodded and Spot, Graves, Jojo, Buttons, Davey, and Les followed him as he started to run out. The rest of the newsies stayed to make sure they knocked Elmer out. Soon the small group ran into a bit of a crossroads.

"Which way?" Albert asked one of the boys that cake through earlier.

"This way," Jojo replied, taking the lead with Buttons' hand in his.

They ran after him for a while until he suddenly stopped. Albert hadn't seen what happened at first since he had ended up in the back and was confused when Buttons started trying to pry his hand out of Jojo's. Then he saw them.

Oscar and Morris Delancey were standing between them and the exit. And unfortunately, Jojo had made eye contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so if you're confused about what exactly happened, I'll explain it a bit better here. His oldest brother and his mom died in a car crash he essentially caused and earlier that day Graves had run into the Delanceys. Graves was mind controlled into controlling a ghost who would have a close connection to Albert, which was his brother. Graves was planted so the newsies would pick a fight with the Brooklyn safehaven and the Delanceys could kidnap Albert without much trouble, but they didn't think some of the Newsies would stay behind, which is why Les and Buttons are sharing cages with Albert and Graves.
> 
> I won't explain this later because this story is mostly gonna be from Davey or Jack's POV, with some exceptions, but yeah.


	11. End of a Long Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What the title of the chapter says.

"Jojo! Let go!" Buttons was trying to get out of his boyfriend's strong grip.

  
Spot tried to help, but the other Delancey brother held up his arm and mimed throwing him across the room. Spot ended up twenty feet away, impacting the wall as he crashed against it. Davey assumed the other brother had telekinesis.

  
Davey watched in terror as a blank-faced Jojo used his other arm to grab Buttons by the hair and force his face in front of the shorter brother.

  
Before his brain caught up to what his body was doing, Davey placed his brother down gently on the ground and turned invisible. He ran up between Buttons, whose eyes were closed as he struggled against the hands holding his head. He wasn't able to stop himself from punching the Delancey right in the face, knocking him off balance to the ground. He then ran behind Jojo and pulled him backward until he let go of the healer. He made himself visible while watching Buttons turn around, sucker-punching his boyfriend to unconsciousness.

  
Graves and Albert joined them after taking down the taller Delancey, who was currently unconscious on the ground.

  
"Four ta one Oscar, what do ya think yer chances are," Albert asked right before the group charged at the remaining brother.

  
As soon as the body hit the ground, they made a break for the door. Davey scooped up Les in his arms again while Spot hoisted Jojo to hang from his back.

  
When they got outside, it was dark. The streetlights illuminated the streets just enough so they could see where they were going. Buttons and Albert led the way as they ducked and swerved into multiple fake alleys and streets, avoiding running the risk of being caught by Snyder. When they got close enough to the hotel, they stopped running to catch their breath. Davey placed Les onto the ground and stretched his arms, not quite used to the heavy lifting.

  
"What about the others?" Albert asked after clearing his throat and replacing the hat he had taken off his head.

  
"They said they'd meet us back at the hotel." Spot answered, "Jack said to be ready for Medda though, even if your guy with the bum leg and my boys stayed back, we's still gotta explain this ta her."

  
Davey watched as Albert picked Les up and swung him around to his back. Albert turned to him to check if it was okay but Davey was honestly just glad to get a break from carrying the 65 pounds that is his baby brother.

  
They walked back in silence, the present fear of being caught in the night was heavy. When they made it to the hotel, they saw Medda standing outside with a couple cops, the rest of the Brooklyn group, Crutchie, Specs, Henry, and Katherine Plumber.

  
"Oh thank goodness!" Katherine said, running up towards the small group. She pulled Buttons in for a hug, squeezed Albert's shoulder, and nodded at the Brooklyn boys. Then she turned to Davey, "Where's Jack and the others?"

  
"They had to deal with Elmer but they's right behind us." Spot intercepted the question.

  
"Okay, good, good," Katherine said after pulling out a pad of paper and facing Albert. "You wouldn't mind..?"

  
"Yeah sure." Albert laid Les on the ground and walked off with Katherine.

  
Spot and Graves quickly went to join their group, who were hugging as soon as they got into proximately. Buttons was sat on the ground, squeezing Jojo's hand lightly. Davey felt awkward, not knowing what to do. He had to hold back a sigh of relief when Race came running back with an unconscious Elmer on his back.

  
"The rest of 'em is coming, Jack's just making sure the Delanceys get a taste of their own medicine." Race started, placing Elmer down next to the other passed out boys. Crutchie, Henry, and Specs walked up to them right after the sentence. "I see Specs 'n Henry came to their senses."

  
"Yeah, sorry 'bout singeing your stomach Race." Specs pointed at the burn mark in Race's shirt that Davey had not noticed before.

  
Davey let himself collapse onto the ground as the friends had their conversation and more of the newsies began to come back. He checked on Les multiple times to make sure he was breathing okay, but otherwise stayed pretty still.

  
"David! How's Les?" Sarah ran up, taking off the denim jacket she was wearing in favour of placing it onto her youngest brother.

  
"He's okay, I think." He replied, standing so he could hug his sister.

  
"He was asleep the entire time we was with the Delanceys, he probably won't remember much of anything." Buttons offered.

  
After a couple of minutes, Jack came back. His shirt sleeve was torn and he looked super pissed. When he walked towards the group Davey was with, he was stopped by Race, telling him that Medda wanted to see him.

  
Davey watched as their new caretaker and Jack got into a heavy conversation but then let his eyes wander around to see what everyone else was doing. The Brooklyn safehaven was leaving to get back to their own home, and the cops walked off in the other direction. Everyone else has trickled into their own little groups. Albert came back by the time Elmer and Jojo woke up, Katherine was no longer with him.  
"She went home." He had explained to the group before he brought Elmer into a hug. Then Davey just listened as the group around him started to talk about a television show he had never seen.

  
Jack sat next to Davey on the sidewalk a couple of minutes after that, sighing heavily. The group stopped their conversation when Jack told them they needed to have a small meeting. He raised his voice to get the Newsies that weren't sitting in that group to come around him.

  
"A lot of the rooms is trashed but it ain't nothing we can't take care of tomorrow with a little elbow grease." Jack explained, "Some 'a the rooms isn't fit to sleep in though, so's we gotta pair up tonight, alright?"

  
The newsies all nodded and started making arrangements among themselves. Mike and Ike agreed to room together so Sarah and Les could have one of their rooms, Albert would stay with Elmer, Crutchie with Race. Fortunately, not all the rooms had their doors kicked in so most of them would keep to their own rooms.

  
When they all went upstairs, to finally end the day, a lot of people did not go into their own rooms as planned, instead opting to pair up. Davey saw Buttons following Jojo into one of the untouched rooms before following Jack into their own.

  
Jack made a beeline for his bed and laid on top of it, letting out a heavy sigh. Davey looked around to confirm that the Delanceys hadn't even touched this room before taking a seat on his bed, facing Jack. The other boy had his eyes closed and it looked like he had already fallen asleep.

  
"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Jack mumbled.

  
"What? I- I wasn't, um-" Davey felt heat going to his face.

  
"Hey, relax. I was just joking around." Jack said, turning his head and opening his eyes. Jack seemed to study Davey's face before moving to get up and walking towards his drawers. "You can borrow some of my pajamas if ya wanna get out of those."

  
"Uh, sure." Davey tried not to freak out when Jack shamelessly took off his shirt and started rifling through his clothes.

  
Jack soon tossed him a pair of basketball shorts and a t-shirt with faded white text that was advertising the theatre. "You can change out here or in the bathroom if it bothers ya."

  
Davey nodded and went into the bathroom. He came out with his old clothes folded and wearing clothes that were almost too small for his tall frame. Jack was wearing a white tank top and another pair of shorts.

  
"Just put it in the hamper, laundry day is in two days."

  
After doing so, Davey just stood there awkwardly and watched Jack fall back on his bed. He was debating whether or not to just ignore the questions running around in his mind.

  
"What?" Jack's voice interrupted his thoughts.

  
"Um, I-" Davey started as he walked over to his bed, "So are Jojo and Buttons the only ones who are a couple or are Elmer and Albert a thing too."

  
Jack made a face, sat up, and turned so he was making eye contact. Then he started laughing.

  
"Well that would make them the last ones ta sense the tension," Jack said. Davey sat on his bed to listen to Jack's explanation. "Elmer and Albert are so obliviously in love with each other. Me and the other fellas placed bets on when they'd finally get their shit together and kiss."

  
"So they aren't together?"

  
"Nah, but my money's on that they figure it out by Christmas."

  
"So it's just Jojo and Buttons who are together?"

  
"Nah, Jojo 'n Buttons is our oldest couple though. Jojo may be Catholic 'n shit but he got a mouth on him. Figured out he was gay two years after he got here 'n asked Buttons out when they was 13."

  
"Oh that's, that's cool." Davey nodded, pulling his legs up so he was sitting cross-legged. "Uh, who else is together?"

  
"Uh, Romeo and Specs, Knobs and Kenny, and Tommy Boy and Sniper are the official ones. Everyone else is pining or single, like me." Jack smiled.

  
"Well, I get it's hard to find a girl if you're around guys all the time." Davey tried making Jack feel better about his lack of relationship.

  
"What's that supposed to mean?"

  
"Oh, I didn't mean, if you just wanna stay single for now that's cool too. I didn't mean that you couldn't find a girl cause you were here." Davey rambled, thinking he hurt Jack's feelings. "I mean, you found Katherine. That didn't work out but that's okay, there are plenty of-"

  
"Davey." Jack interrupted, "I'm bi. Don't matter if bein' here drives the girls away."

  
"Oh.." Oh!

  
"You're okay with that right?"

  
"Yeah, of course. My sister's gay." Davey said in a panic, "And I'm gay too, I don't know why I started that with my sister. I like guys."

  
Jack laughed as Davey turned red, "Well good ta know Davey. I'm gonna sleep now if that's alright with you. Gotta long day tomorrow."

  
"Yeah, yeah goodnight."

  
Davey got under his covers and turned so he was facing away from Jack. The other boy turned the lights off, leaving Davey in the dark with his own thoughts.

  
What the fuck had Jack meant by ' _good to know_ '?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all have been waiting for Javey right?


	12. Storage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The newsies have to make some extra cash to pay for the damages done.

Clean up had taken all day but it would've taken longer if the people cleaning up hadn't been mutants. Unfortunately, the cost of repairs still made quite the dent in Medda's pocket.

  
"Medda ain't gonna press charges," Jack said in their emergency meeting.

  
"Why the hell not!?" Finch shouted.

  
"'Cause I told her not to," Jack stated, this caused quite the eruption out of his audience. "Hey. Hey! If Medda presses charges, it's gonna take time away from her focusin' on the theatre! And word gets out a mutant fight happened that could've killed people if there was guests present, we's done for. Besides, they came here without permission from Weasel, they ain't gonna show they're ugly mugs 'round here for a long time if they know what's good for 'em."

  
"So what're we gonna do about the money if it ain't gonna come from Weasel's pocket?" Race asked.

  
"Spot said Brooklyn'd help any way they can since we saved one 'a their own." Jack answered, "Plus we got the gala where we can skim a few bucks off of the rich folks."

  
Apparently, Jack had forgotten to mention that fundraiser in all the commotion yesterday because everyone who hadn't gone to Katherine's yesterday started murmuring excitedly to one another.

  
"Wait, we don't got nothin' to wear." Henry pointed out.

  
"Fitting's on Saturday."

  
That was met with a lot of groans and complaints.

  
"Aye, shut up! We'd going to help support our friends and earn some cash, and that's final." Jack's words cut the commotion down to a couple of grumbles.

  
"What about today's wages? We didn't get nothing done besides clean up." Mush pointed out.

  
"Jacobi said if we helped out during dinner tonight he'd pay. He's been short-staffed since that chain restaurant opened downtown." Jack answered.

  
"Every time we work there he asks us to hide our mutations," Finch complained.

  
"It drives away his customers. Besides, ain't no one else giving a look through our resumés." Jack countered.

  
Finch reluctantly complied along with the rest of the newsies. They all made their way to the restaurant, where Jacobi met them at the front.

  
"Hello, boys! Enter through the back, you know your usual stations." He ushered them up the fire escape to the door at the back. Jack was stopped when he started to climb.

  
"Mr. Kelly, I know I said I was short-staffed but I can't afford to pay all of you boys for tonight if I want to make rent. There are over twenty of you, plus these three who, I'm not even sure where I could put them."

  
"Uh." Jack turned to who was left behind him, as most of the newsies were already prepping in the kitchen. "I can find something else for us I guess."

  
Mr. Jacobi nodded, "I can, however, change afford one more boy on the payroll."

  
Jack studied who was standing behind him, expectantly. Crutchie, Mush, Kid Blink, and the Jacobs family.

  
"How 'bout a girl?" Jack asked, looking at Sarah. Sarah shrugged and squeezed past the group of boys to get up the stairs. "Hey, tell the other fellas that we're heading uptown."

  
She nodded and Mr. Jacobi followed her, leaving the rest of the group at the bottom.

  
"What're we gonna do?" Les asked.

  
"Headin' uptown. C'mon."

  
Jack led the small group through the streets, keeping their heads down since it was getting late. They stopped at Katherine's apartment building. Jack buzzed the penthouse.

  
"Hello?" The voice sounded like a 60s radio talk-show host but came out crackly.

  
"Darcy? Hey, it's Jack! Me and a couple of the guys need some cash. Do ya still need that storage room cleaned out?"

  
"Hold on." A buzz and click let them know the building was unlocked.

  
Jack let everyone through and let the door close after he followed the last boy in. They made their way up the numerous flights of stairs until reaching near the top floor. Crutchie knocked on the door, which was answered by Bill.

  
"Oh hey, are you guys alright? Katherine told us about yesterday after you left."

  
"Delanceys made a mess of the hotel, we need some extra cash to help pay the bill." Jack answered, "Darcy let us up to clean your storage room."

  
As if on cue, Darcy appeared in the doorway with a long piece of paper. "Oh hello! I had to get the list of what we need to keep in that storage room. Everything else can be made in a pile and Bill and I can help you go through that pile for anything we can let you guys sell."

  
"That's mighty generous Darce, but-"

  
"We insist, not like we're gonna find the time to sell it ourselves," Bill added. "And we're still paying you for the initial clean up."

  
Jack nodded and the couple let the group in.

  
"Whoa! This place is huge!" Les gaped and tilted his head back to see the ceiling.

  
Davey lightly swatted his brother in the back, scolding him for being so blunt. He looked up to apologize but the homeowners were just laughing. Bill nodded in understanding at Davey.

  
"Don't worry, I have a little sister. She loves saying anything that comes to her mind, too."

  
Davey tugged on Les' hand and followed Darcy to the storage room. It was even bigger than their kitchen.

  
Jack whistled at the boxes and miscellaneous junk that covered the large room. He immediately sent Mush and Kid Blink to start at the back and was going to send Davey and Les to a different corner of the room when Crutchie spoke up."Say, where's Katherine?" Crutchie asked

  
"She went out with a few of her other friends to get a new dress for the fundraiser." Darcy explained, "Bill and I will be getting our suits tomorrow."

  
"Neat! I never worn a suit before!" Les exclaimed.

  
"Well we should fix that, shouldn't we?" Darcy smiled at the small boy. "You're coming to the fitting aren't you?"

  
Jack smiled, knowing Darcy and Bill would make great parents as soon as he let Les follow him back to their living room, deep in conversation. That just left Crutchie and Davey.

  
"Hey Jack, I think I'm gonna wait for the smaller pile. I don't exactly have the leg lifting strength." Crutchie said, pointing to his bum leg. He then walked the way Darcy and Les had just left.

  
That left Jack with Davey as Kid Blink and Mush were far enough away that they wouldn't both each other.

  
Davey, the boy that Jack has only known for three days but helped him find his friends. Davey, the boy that turned invisible when he got scared or nervous. Davey, the one who told Jack he was gay last night and Jack stupidly answered with ' _good ta know_ '.

  
Because Davey Jacobs was cute as hell, but would never go for a guy like Jack anyway. He was probably too smart for that.

  
"So uh, we should start hauling boxes right?" Davey asked, snapping Jack out of his own brain.  
"Yeah, let's do it."

  
And so their night was spent cleaning out storage. Davey started singing something quietly to himself at one point, which threw Jack off so badly that he almost dropped the box he was holding. Mush saw him and wagged his eyebrows, to which Jack responded by throwing an old embroidered pillow at him. That caused Davey to turn and look at him.

  
"What's happening?" He asked.

  
"Nothin', Mush is just bein' a dick."

  
"I am what I eat!" Mush exclaimed from the other end of the room. Blink proceeded to swat him with an empty box of cardboard, but Mush hardened his skin to mimic the flooring before it made an impact.

  
"Uh," Jack turned back to Davey, "You have a pretty vo-pretty cool, pretty cool voice."

  
"Oh thanks." The other boy smiled sheepishly, implying that he didn't realize he was singing out loud.

  
Jack regretted saying anything because the rest of the time they cleaned up was void of the quiet melody from earlier. Davey volunteered to get the other four boys and ran out of the room. As soon as he was gone, Jack let out a whine.

  
"Jack Kelly has a cruuush." Mush smiled, tucking his chin on the leader's shoulder.

  
"Wait who?" Kid Blink asked

  
"Are ya blind? Davey!" Mush answered

  
"Just in the one eye." Blink replied, and the lifted his eyepatch. A light shone out of it and the scene from earlier played out before their eyes

  
"Hey shut that off!" Jack swatted at Blink's chest, "I do not have a crush on Davey."

  
"Projection says otherwise, boss." Mush pointed out, grinning.

  
"You-"

  
"Whoa! That's so cool!" Les' voice interrupted the insult Jack was cooking up. The young boy ran up to what Blink was projecting, which had thankfully changed from the earlier moment of Jack actin' like a little kid with a crush to a movie the Newsies had gone to see the week prior.

  
After the scene Blink was showing Les was finished, they sorted out their junk. Jack called the restaurant to contact Race to help them carry the stuff they were going to sell. Jack thanked Bill and Darcy and told them to tell Katherine that he said hi. The small group went back home with their arms full.

  
Everyone but the couples, Les and Sarah, and Davey and Jack went back to their isolated rooms. Jack was brushing his teeth when Davey decided to ask him a question from outside the bathroom.

  
"Do you think we have enough to pay for the repairs?"

  
"I have no clue." Jack admitted after spitting out the toothpaste he had in his mouth, "Once we sell the stuff we might be closer to the goal."

  
"Are we not gonna reach it?"

  
"I can just pull outta my own savings," Jack said dismissively, rinsing his toothbrush and grabbing water to rinse his mouth.He heard Davey moving and didn't think much of it until he appeared in the doorway. He was holding one of Jack's sketchbooks. Jack's face became red and he charged at Davey, snatching the book out of his hand.

  
"Why the fuck are you going through my stuff!?" He said angrily, closing the book and putting it back in the drawer it lived in.

  
"I-I didn't-" Jack suddenly felt bad for scaring Davey and counted to ten.

  
"It's fine, just... don't do it again." He turned to see Davey looking at the ground nervously. He sighed, "Its the place they take mutants to weaponize them."

  
Davey looked up at that. Jack could practically see the question marks floating around his head. He was referring to the drawings Davey found.

  
"I was only there for a week when I was nine, before anyone else got here. Nothin' took but-" Jack had never really told anyone this before, he wasn't sure why he was telling Davey. He let the sentence hang in the air, Davey was surprisingly the one who broke the silence.

  
"You're uh, you're really good at drawing." He said, "Why don't you sell them?"

  
Jack let out a short, quick laugh, "Me? Selling art? That's a laugh, Dave."

  
"No, I'm serious! Not like those street artists, but like online!" Davey said, excitement building in his voice.

  
Jack thought about it. They did need the extra money and just their salaries from the restaurant wouldn't cut it. He could afford new canvasses easily.

  
"What about you? Ask Medda to let you sing a little."

  
"What?"

  
"Y'know sing a little on the stage. The singers get tips and I was serious earlier when I said you had a nice voice, Dave."

  
Davey blushed and Jack felt his heart jump a little. "And you'll sell your drawing?"

  
"Yeah, why the hell not? I'll sell some art and you sing at the theatre and we'll make enough money for the repairs without dipping into anyone's savings!" Jack started getting excited about this too, "Ask Finch to play guitar for ya, he played it when he was a kid and never dropped it as a hobby when we got here."

  
"Okay."

  
Jack smiled after the taller boy and let himself fall into bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Powers Revealed In This Chapter:  
> Mush: Substance Mimicry  
> Kid Blink: Projection


	13. Birdie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finch POV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really like this chapter but it's just a filler so it's fine.

Patrick Cortes was 10 when he decided to take his metaphorical wings and legitimately fly away from home. His mother had only sheltered him for a year, but he was already tired of not seeing the world. So, when his mom went out for groceries, he pried open his window and flew away. He ended up landing on a hotel's rooftop, where three other boys his age were hanging out.

"Whoa! That was so cool!" One of the boys exclaimed. In a blink of an eye, the boy had appeared 20 feet closer, "You're like us!"

Patrick soon found out that those boys were some of the ones living in the Manhattan Safehaven. When he wouldn't tell them his name, the dark-haired boy graced him with the nickname Finch, which stuck even after he revealed his real name. Jack, Crutchie, and Race, the three who were on the roof, accepted him into their family without another question.

That was about seven years ago. He'd been counting down the years to Barney's 18th birthday. Once the 15-year-old turned 18, they'd be off to the place all of them has seen Jack paint more than a handful of times.

Finch was a little worried when they accepted a nine-year-old into the family. Would their moving date be pushed pack? That would add another 6 years to their 3-year wait. 

But it turned out the siblings were pretty cool. Finch fought helped Sarah knock out Elmer while he was under Oscar Delancey's control at that warehouse so he quickly found out how badass she was. Finch could immediately tell how much Jack was into Davey, and if Jack liked the guy, then he had to be pretty cool. Les was a new mutant but had a hell of a fighting spirit. He talked back and pushed at the older kids, and Finch thought that was pretty cool. If they did end up having to wait nine years to move, he wouldn't be as annoyed if it was for the kid.

Otherwise, he didn't speak with the Jacobs much since they'd arrived. That meant he was very surprised when Davey approached Finch to ask if he wanted to play guitar with him at the theatre to get the extra cash for the repairs. He agreed since it would only be temporary. The two asked Medda together and she agreed to them starting after Katherine's fundraiser on Sunday.

After work, Davey invited Finch to his and Jack's room to test out some songs. Finch had to stop by his room to grab his guitar, so he let Davey go ahead of him. As he exited, he spotted Henry standing in the vending and ice machine room.

"You got dough for the machine?" Finch asked, leaning against the doorframe.

"Yeah, why?" Henry turned his head and glanced at the guitar case, "Fishin' for change?"

"Practicin' with Davey in Jack's room." Finch explained, "We's gonna play at the theatre until we reach our goal for the repairs."

There was some beeping and then some whirring coming from the machine Henry just put change into. He reached through the bottom flap and grabbed the chips he bought.

"Did ya want something? I got extra quarters on me."

"No, I'm good. Thanks though." Finch said.

"Alright, good luck with your practice then." Henry walked away without another glance at Finch.

Henry came to the Manhattan Safehaven a year after Finch. Their stories were so different when compared. Finch's father never cared about him, Henry's father was one of the best dads a guy could ever have. Finch's mother was overbearingly overprotective, Henry's mother left when he was little. Finch ran away from home because he hated living with his mom, Henry ran to the safehaven because his dad died and had nowhere else to go. Finch may or may not have a huge crush on Henry, Henry may or may not be completely and utterly straight.

The boy sighed and walked to Davey and Jack's room and knocked on the door. Davey opened it and smiled, showing him in. He heard the shower going, so Jack must've been in there.

Finch had been in Jack's room before but the bed that used to be stacked with dirty laundry and empty paint cans was now neatly made. There was a painting on the easel that didn't look quite finished by Jack's usual standards. He wanted to look around for more things that might've changed since last time he was in here but Davey interrupted.

"What should our set start with?"

Finch and Davey messed around with different songs that they both knew, and they were sounding great. The practice was running smoothly until Jack came walking out with just a towel on.

"I forgot to bring my clothes into the bathroom, pretend I'm not here." He said apologetically as he started rifling through his drawers.

Finch turned back to Davey and started playing the introduction to the next song they wanted to play but that's when he saw it.

Davey Jacobs was as into Jack Kelly as Jack Kelly was into Davey Jacobs.

Finch stifled a laugh by pressing his lips together. The pining in Davey's eyes as he watched Jack walk back into the bathroom reminded him of when Specs was too scared to ask Romeo out. He'd have to run a bet with one of the other boys later.

"Hey I'll be back later, I gotta go help Race with something," Jack said, coming back out.

Finch and Davey replied to acknowledge they heard him. As soon as he shut the door, Finch put down his guitar.

"What are you doing?" Davey asked.

"So, you like Jack?" Finch countered.

"W-what?"

"Aw please, anyone with two eyes coulda seen ya starin'." A pause, "Actually no, scratch that, Blink coulda seen that too."

Davey stammered, obviously trying to come up with some excuse. "I-"

"It's fine, Jack can't tell when no boy is interested. Some guy at the Queens Safehaven asked him if he wanted to discuss somethin' over a coffee date once and Jack didn't know it was a date until the guy tried kissin' him when he dropped him back off here." Finch laughed, "Was even dating Katherine at the time, it was hilarious. So you's good if you is worried about him figuring it out."

"Don't tell him."

"I won't. I'll even give you an incentive. If I tell Jack that you like him, you can tell Henry that I like him."

"You're gay?" Davey asked, wide-eyed

"Not many people in this safehaven aren't." Finch laughed, "That's why you can't tell Henry."

"Henry's straight?"

"He only really ever talks about girls so probably." Finch shrugged, quickly changing the subject by strumming out their next song.

They played around until Jack came back and requested to sleep in his own bed as they had fitting tomorrow.

"Alright, see ya, Davey. See ya, boss." Finch said as he left. He and Davey sounded pretty good and he was certain they'd be ready by their performance date.

His confidence came to a shattering stop when he spotted Henry sitting outside his door, waiting for him.  
"What's up Henry?"

"Do ya mind if I stay with you again? The whole Delancey situation still got me a little shaken."

"Of course."


	14. Barely Fitted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The newsies get measured for their suits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for over 1000 hits!  
> I just started school again, so hopefully these chapters still come out semi-frequently.

If you thought it would be easy to get 23 teenagers and a little kid out the door in time for a morning fitting appointment, you have obviously never lived a day in the life of Jack Kelly.

"Specs, Racer, Henry, Albert, Elmer! Get a move on!" Jack yelled down the hall amongst the flurry of boys who decided to bring the chaos out into the halls instead of just containing it to their own rooms.

Tommy appeared in front of Jack suddenly, shirtless. "I don't got a clean shirt."

"Aw, Tommy Boy, you is killin' me, man!" He slapped him on the shoulder, "Ask your boyfriend!"

"All his shirts is uncomfy as hell!"

"That's just 'cause they have sleeves, ya neanderthal!" Sniper's voice yelled from across the hall.

"You is gonna change at the shop anyway, just go!" Jack pushed the younger boy away, "And I don't wanna hear nothin' about you cutting off the sleeves again!"

He turned towards the outside of the elevator where Sarah was laughing. Sarah was wearing something she borrowed from one of the performer's from the theatre, Les and Davey were standing beside her, both wearing hand-me-downs from the other newsies. The Jacobs were the only ones ready other than Jack and Crutchie, who were already downstairs on the phone with Katherine to get the address.

"Ya know, you's could help me out," Jack said, motioning at the boys who could very well just be having races between the rooms instead of actually trying to get ready.

"Oh no, no, no! This is much too entertaining." Sarah smiled

"Davey, could ya give me a hand with them?" Jack tried

"I-uh.. isn't Race your second-in-command?" Davey shifted just weight nervously.

"You're damn right I am!" Race said, screeching to a halt between the two, without pants on before running off again.

"For someone so fast, you is fucking slow as shit!" Jack yelled, which he followed with an annoyed whine. If everyone wasn't ready in 10 minutes, they would be late. And that would look bad in front of the people Katherine, Bill, and Darcy were paying for.

"Done!" Race said, taking a bow.

"Why is everyone else taking so long then?" Jack asked

"Well Buttons and Jojo are making out in Mush's bathroom, Kenny's trying to keep Albert from wearing something stupid, Sniper is yelling at Tommy Boy for ripping the sleeves off another of his shirts, Elmer can't find his shoes-"

"Fucking hell." Jack mumbled, cutting Race off, "We are getting fitted for clothes! Now you guys'd better be ready in five minutes or I'm gonna tell Medda ta switch off the cable to the floor!"

That got everyone moving quicker. They were all at the elevator in four minutes looking half-decent and everyone wearing the appropriate amount of clothes. Except for Elmer, who was not wearing shoes.

"Have fun boys! Don't stay out too late!" Medda called after them as they ran out the door.

Race was the first one there, for obvious reasons. Jack found him sitting on the bench next to the building, lounging.

"Did you not tell Katherine you was here?" Jack asked

"Was I supposed to?" Race questioned

Jack grumbled and led the boys through the doors. It looked like the place in the background of the photos he was sent from the preparation of Bill and Darcy's prom night fittings. The carpets were off-white, silk ties were hanging from the ceiling, wedding dresses and suits were displayed on elegant marble beams of stone. There was a young Asian lady at the desk that separated the shoe area with the actual store.

"I'm sorry sir, the store has been rented out for the afternoon. Our next opening is-"

"Jack! Hey!" Bill walked up, wearing a nice blue tux, "It's okay Amber, they're with us."

The woman nodded, slightly surprised, and started typing on her computer. The boys all filed in after taking their shoes off. They followed Bill who led them to a separated section of the store where they saw Darcy getting measured by a woman in a purple sundress while Katherine sat, watching. Bill walked over to his boyfriend and Katherine approached the group.

"Hey, guys! Glad you could make it!"

"Sorry, we's late, ran into a few problems." Jack looked back accusingly.

"That's alright, Bill and Darcy just went first." She smiled, and then looked over at Sarah who was standing with her mouth slightly agape. "Hey, I'm Katherine!"

"Uh, I'm Sarah."

"Oh Davey's sister! Well, it's nice to meet you, someone else will be doing our dresses so you can come with me." Katherine grabbed her hand to begin leading her to another part of the building

Sarah glanced over at Davey with wide eyes. Davey suppressed a laugh and shooed his sister off. Les looked between his two siblings in confusion. "What's wrong with Sarah?"

"Your sister's got a bad case of lesbian," Finch answered quietly, Davey had to try not to laugh again.

"Okay boys, figure out who wants to go first and I'll start measuring." The tailor announced after Darcy got off the podium he was standing on.

Jack decided to go last since most of the newsies would not have the patience to wait that long, so he hung back. Race went first and was done pretty quickly and Davey was going to go near the end so they kept Jack company.

At lunch a couple of hours later, most of the newsies were done with measurements and picking out colours and styles. Bill and Darcy had taken the other newsies to their apartment for a small gathering and food. Jack was surprised at the lack of mishaps that occurred during the fitting and was pretty proud of his boys. There were only 5 boys left, but they had to wait while their tailor had her lunch break. Davey, Jack, Finch, Jojo, and Crutchie were sat around the podium in awkward silence. Sarah and Katherine were still there too but in the other section of the building and they haven't seen them since the beginning.

The woman from the front desk, Amber, suddenly came running in.

"Mrs. Jamison had a family emergency and had to go home for the day. She asked that she would finish up with the rest of you tomorrow."

Jojo and Finch groaned loudly, but Jack took charge and said that that would be alright. As they made their way out of the room, they spotted Katherine and Sarah laughing as twirled in a frilly pink dress. They had a different tailor so Jack informed them that they would be heading to Katherine's apartment for lunch with the other newsies.

"But I'll just text Katherine if we leave before you is done."

"Or we could hang out here and grab our own lunch. And then after we could have a good old fashioned sleepover." Katherine suggested, "What do you say, Sarah? Want to have a girl's day?"

Sarah looked to Jack, who shrugged and nodded to let her know she could do that. "Sure! I'd love to!"

Jack walked out of the building with the other four boys following closely behind. He felt his phone suddenly buzzing in his pocket.

"Hello?" Jack answered without checking the caller ID.

"Hey, Jack! It's Bill. If you're still heading over with the others, I need you to go to the grocery store and pick up what's on the list for dinner. I texted everything to you."

"Will do!" Jack hung up and turned, "Looks like we's goin' shopping boys."


	15. The Produce Aisle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five mutants walk into a grocery store...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feedback is always very nice to hear in the comments and they help the chapters come in quicker!

The nearest mutant-friendly grocery store was a fair distance away from Katherine, Bill, and Darcy's apartment, but Jack didn't mind the walk. In fact, he was giving Crutchie a piggyback ride on the way there while Finch held his crutch. They entered the store and decided to split up.

"Who's goin' with who?" Jojo asked.

"Me, Jojo, n' Crutchie can take care of everything we needs on this side of the shop. Jack n' Davey can pair up on that side." Finch said quickly, looking smugly at Davey.

"Finch-" Davey started but Finch picked Crutchie up bridal style and ran off with Jojo in tow.

"They sure like pairin' us together." Jack laughed.

"Uh yeah, I guess," Davey replied, sheepishly.

"Don't tell me you is gettin' tired 'a me yet Dave."Jack feigned Burt and places an open hand on his chest.

"N-no, I just-"

"Relax Davey. Let's just go get the fruits 'n veggies Bill was askin' for." Jack grabbed Davey's hand and dragged him along to the produce aisle.

Jack grabbed a couple of the plastic bags and bendy ties, handing them to Davey. The pair went around, filling the bags with what was on the list. Nobody paid them much mind since Jack's mutation wasn't a visible thing and Davey wasn't using his. This was different than all the other times Jack went shopping.

Medda always wanted them to go to the grocer in pairs to stay safe. Jack was used to going with Crutchie, who would always get weird looks on account of his prominent limp, Race, who felt restless if he didn't speed through the aisles, or Finch, who made himself useful by flying up to get things on the top shelf. He loved them, but he was relieved he could avoid an argument that could go down with a prejudiced idiot. He worried about the boys on the other end of the store but knew if anything did happen, they could hold their ground. Finch was crazy enough to go off on anyone who dared question their presence and Crutchie and Jojo were level-headed enough to hold him back. But just because this was a mutant-friendly store, does not mean the people there were mutant friendly.

"Excuse me, are you going to be taking all the apples?" A lady with a shrill voice asked in an annoyed tone as Davey stood holding the plastic bag open for Jack to toss the fruit in.

"Listen, lady, our friend is makin' a couple dozen apple pies, yous can wait a bit while we fill this, can't ya?" Jack said, keeping eye contact as he continued stuffing the bag.

The lady scoffed, "I'm sure your friends are not as important as mine."

"Well, I'll be sure ya tell William Randolph Hearst about what ya think his status is lady," Jack smirked.

The lady's face paled. She sputtered for a bit and ended up just walking away. Jack's smile got brighter as he turned to face Davey. Davey was not smiling.

"We aren't friends with William Randolph Hearst, Jack." He said, hugging the bag to his chest.

"Sure we is! I didn't specify that I meant Junior. 'Sides, That lady didn't even fact check us, that's on her."

"But you lied."

"Relax Davey."

Davey kept quiet for the rest of their time there, following the other boy around blindly. Jack pretended not to notice but mentally kicked himself for letting his cockiness get in the way of a potentially good time. They were about done with their stuff but Jack could still see the other three with a cart, running down the aisles.

"Hey, guys!" Crutchie said as the cart came to a screeching halt beside the two boys. He was sitting in the middle of the cart, his crutch hanging off the side. Jojo was pushing the cart like a skateboard and Finch was hovering by the side of it. There was a visual lack of stuff in their cart.

"Hey, we's about done, want us to wait for yous before we pay?" Jack asked

"I got the dough for it, as long as Bill said he was gonna pay us back." Jojo chimed in.

"Yeah, you and Dave can go ahead," Finch added.

"Alright, meet yous at the penthouse."

Jack and Davey left the door shortly after. They ducked into an alley to get to the other road, but Jack stopped abruptly.

"Are you mad at me?" Jack asked. Davey looked surprised to hear this.

"No, no. Or... I don't think so at least." Davey shrugged.

"Then why is you so quiet all of a sudden? Ya barely spoke a word in the store after the thing with the lady." Jack pointed out, "Look, I'm sorry for lying. I just didn't want that lady bothering us or nothing."

"It wasn't that Jack. I just... when you told me to relax."

"That was a stupid thing for me to say, if anything, I shoulda been the one relaxin'."

"It wasn't that Jack, it's just that it sounded a lot like something Sarah would say."

"Oh, did you 'n Sarah have a fight or somethin'?"

"No, but her 18th birthday is on Tuesday."

Jack felt a flood of relief as he realized Davey was just overthinking about his sister rather than hate his guts. But with that confession, a new problem arose. Since Sarah was the oldest in the safehaven, no one was really sure what the laws were about a legal adult staying in a safehaven. Since Jack was legally Medda's son, they were going to figure it out with Finch, who was the next oldest. They had a plan, but it wasn't ready to come into effect just now, and Sarah was new and a girl. But that was a problem for after her birthday.

"We can have a party for her, does she have any friends she might wanna invite?"

"Hard to make friends from your family apartment without a phone."

"Okay well-"

The next chain of events happened in less than a minute, but things seemed to be going in slow motion.

They were in a dark alley, so Jack noticed a small light shift behind wear Davey was standing. He saw the guy with the ski mask and a  _ 'mutants are monsters' _ t-shirt run up from behind a garbage bin. Jack noticed a glint of a silver knife and his first instinct was to drop the grocery bags he was carrying and push Davey away. The taller boy fell to the ground but narrowly avoided the fatal stab wound the man was about to give.

Without thinking, Jack grabbed the guy's wrist and twisted it, leaving his stomach exposed. Jack kicked the guy into the opposite wall, ran up, and punched the guy in the face, hard. Once he saw that the guy was knocked out cold, he grabbed Davey with one hand and the grocery bags with the other. They ran out of there as fast as they and didn't stop until the reached a different alley. Jack let go of Davey's hand and checked the alleyways, swearing to himself for stopping them in such a dangerous area. Once he confirmed that they were clear, he turned back to Davey, who was staring at his chest with a pale expression.

Jack looked down and saw the knife buried right where his heart was.

"Shit."


	16. Immortality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack has some explaining to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for scaring all of you! I planned this chapter since the beginning so I didn't realize some of you would freak out about the cliffhanger as bad.

The only people that knew Jack had two mutations were Crutchie, Medda, and Buttons. Medda found out because she was with him the first time he was supposed to die on his ninth birthday. The clock struck midnight and Jack tripped through a second-story window. He was in the hospital for a week but he was totally fine. Crutchie found out because it was hard to keep anything from Crutchie, plus Jack needed to explain how he didn't die after getting hit by a huge semi-truck. Buttons knew because Medda was tired of paying medical bills and Buttons was confused about why Jack's injuries weren't more severe after falling off the roof.

Everyone knew Jack had immunity to other mutations, but only those three knew about his immortality. See, Jack couldn't die and had a faster healing speed than most of the population. Second mutations were very rare and could get him on a hit list, so he couldn't let many people find out. Unfortunately, one more person would have to today.

"Jack! Holy- I, lay down, I can. I gotta find someone! I can call someone! Where's your phone? I-" Davey was currently pacing around, tears rolling down his face. Jack felt bad, so he started pulling the knife out of his chest, but Davey saw him. "Don't pull that out! It's keeping the blood in! It's a miracle you're even alive right now but you gotta stay with me, Jack! Alright? Just, no!"

Jack pulled the knife the rest of the way out and tossed it to the side. He felt some blood gush out onto his shirt and pants but it stopped quickly. Jack looked up and gave a sheepish smile. Davey took one look at the hole in his chest and proceeded to throw up behind the dumpster.

"Davey! Ya good? I gotta call Buttons." Jack asked when the sounds stopped.

"How..?" Davey asked, moving away from the mess that was in his stomach moments before.

"Ya ever heard of second mutations?" Davey nodded, "Well I gots one a' those. Immortality, I can't die."

After Jack's confession, Davey stared at him for a long time, gaze lowering down to his chest every now and again. Jack sighed, reaching out towards the other boy, who flinched away.

"Davey..." Jack sighed when all the taller boy did was stare. "I'm gonna call Buttons, alright?"

Davey just nodded, leaned against the wall, and sank down until he was hugging his knees to his chest. Jack wanted to do something about it but he'd never experienced a reaction like this before. Medda was relieved but worried when she found out, Crutchie was unaffected other than the thankfulness that Jack had not died, and Buttons was anything but quiet. So Jack left Davey to his thoughts and walked a bit away to call the healer.

Buttons was there in less than 15 minutes, out of breath. He was able to speed up the closing of Jack's wound. During their wait, Jack and Davey hadn't said a word to each other. Buttons looked back at the boy huddled up against the wall and then back to Jack.

"What happened?" He asked

"He, uh, saw me get stabbed so I told him," Jack whispered

"Oh," The younger boy looked a little uncomfortable being in the middle of this, "Where's Jojo?"

"Still in the store with Crutchie and Finch."

"I'm gonna leave you two alone ta find him. Do ya want me ta buy you some clothes to change out of..." He gestured at the huge bloodstains on his clothes.

"That'd be great."

As soon as Buttons left, Jack hesitated before walking and sinking down beside Davey, who just continued staring at the ground. Jack peeled off his shirt and dabbed the smear of blood around where he's been stabbed and tossed it beside the dumpster. After a couple more moments of silence, Jack spoke up.

"I didn't mean ta scare ya, Dave."

"Well, you did." Jack simultaneously relieved and afraid to finally hear his voice again, but his tone softened for the next words that came out of his mouth. "Why don't you tell people you're immortal?"

"Cause I already got a bounty on my head bein' a safehaven leader. Plus I got a mutation that people want to experiment on, if I tack on immortality to it then I'm as good as done for."

"Who else knows?"

"You're the fourth."

"Why don't you tell the newsies?"

"Well ya met them, they ain't exactly discrete."

"You're lying. What's the real reason? I see the way ya are with them, you'd trust 'em with your life."

Jack spared a glance to the side at that comment. He found Davey staring pointedly at him with those cute brown eyes. He'd never thought about that before. Of course he trusts his boys. Maybe he didn't even have a real answer, at least not yet.

"I just can't right now. I don't think I'm ready for them to know." Jack decided, even though he didn't think that was the full reason.

"Okay."

And then Davey rested his head on Jack's shoulder, sighing. Jack felt butterflies flutter around in his stomach and tensed up. The cutest boy Jack has ever met had just rested on him and Jack didn't want to move out of fear of disturbing the moment.

So they stayed like that until Buttons rounded the corner, quickly tossing clean clothes at the two of them, but not before giving Jack's look when he saw them sitting like that.

"Ya better change quick. Crutchie's stalling Jojo 'n Finch but I don't know how long he can." He said. Davey and Jack jumped up and scrambled around.

Jack opened the dumpster after picking up his bloodied shirt from the ground and tossing it in along with his pants. Davey and Buttons went to grab groceries. Jack was just towing his shoes back on when the other three peered into the alleyway.

"I thought yous went ahead?" Jojo asked, surprised to see the pair.

"Somethin' came up," Jack said.

"Sure it did." Finch winked at Davey who shook his head and glared. Jack was confused but decided not to question it.

"Jack isn't that different from what you were wearing-" Jojo started to ask, but was interrupted by a kiss from Buttons.

"Let's go! I'm starving." Crutchie announced, nodding at Jack before he walked as fast as he could out of the alley.

Jack, Buttons, and Davey all followed quickly. Finch and Jojo, though confused, followed as well.

"So I'm not the only one who thinks they is actin' weird right?" Jack heard Jojo ask Finch, but he still sounded a little dazed from the impromptu kiss from his boyfriend.

"I wouldn't worry. Ya know how you 'n Buttons were."

"What do ya- ohh! Huh, guess you's right. That makes much more sense."

Jack decided to leave that conversation alone since he didn't know what Finch was implying or why Jojo got it in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Powers Revealed In This Chapter:  
> Jack: Immortality


	17. Miscommunication

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aftermath of Davey finding out Jack's secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for this update being so late, uni's time-consuming.
> 
> Um, this is filler but Jack's bi disaster.

Crutchie pulled Jack back right outside the apartment. Buttons and Davey didn't seem to notice, but Jojo and Finch looked at them strangely as Jack handed them the grocery bags he was carrying before shrugging it off and going inside themselves.

"Ya told Davey?" Crutchie yell-whispered in case anyone was listening through the door. It seemed redundant, as Crutchie was telepathic, but the younger boy never liked using his powers on his friends anyways.

"Well, what was I supposed to do? I had a knife in my chest! I may be charmin', Crutchie, but I ain't that charmin'." Jack said.

Crutchie sighed, "He ain't gonna tattle, is he?"

"No, I trust 'im."

Jack leaned against the wall beside the door and stared across the room at the strange framed painting of an intricate vine. Crutchie watched his face for a moment, turned to look at the painting, and then turned back, smirking.

"Oh, you got it bad, Jack Kelly."

"Huh?"

"Davey, ya like Davey."

"No! Why would I like Davey? We've only known each other for a week!"

"Oh please, Jack. I've known ya for almost a decade. I ain't never seen you like this with anyone but Katherine before. Plus, you've been sticking with him like glue since he got here. You got it bad."

"This is different Crutchie. Davey knows about my immortality. At least with Katherine, she didn't know I'd be living forever."

"Jack, I think if you'd just-"

"Dinner's ready, you guys comin' in?" Race interrupted, peering past the door.

"Uh yeah, just give us a second, will ya?" Jack answered.

Race nodded and left the door cracked open for the two. Jack turned back to Crutchie.

"Just think about it, yeah?" Crutchie said as he walked into the apartment.

"Crutchie, I don't know what you's talkin' about! Ya never finished your thought!" Jack exclaimed, but his best friend was already inside. Jack let out a heavy sigh and followed.

When he got in, he spotted the grocery bags, left forgotten on the kitchen's island other than the things that the boys probably put in the fridge right away. Ten boys were seated at the long dining table, and Jack took a glance through the open door that separated the dining room and the living room. He saw the remainder of the newsies sitting on the couch and watching the television.

Bill and Darcy were sitting at the table along with Davey, Jojo, and Buttons. Jack moved to sit at the head of the table, opposite Darcy, but was distracted by an echo-ey voice in his head yelling his name. He turned in a circle abruptly, checking his surroundings. When he was back to facing the seat, he saw Crutchie where he was about to sit, giving him the biggest shit-eating grin Jack had ever seen. The only spot left was next to Davey.

"Uh, mind if I sit here?" Jack asked, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

Davey looked up mid-bite. He glanced down at the chair for a moment and quickly looked back up. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Uh, no reason, I guess. Thanks."

"Hey Bill, where's Katherine?" Jack could've kissed Jojo for interrupting the awkward exchange. He took his seat and reached for the serving bowl as the older boy answered his question.

"She texted me that she and Sarah are just going to eat out," Bill said. Jojo started laughing but stopped when his boyfriend swatted him in the stomach.

"Should we wait up?" Jack asked as he placed the serving bowl back in the middle of the table.

"No, Katherine told us that Sarah wanted to stay over here for a night." Darcy replied, "They're checking with Medda to see if it's alright."

"Oo, Katherine's gettin' it!" Race yelled from the living room.

They heard a thudding noise and Race yelling out. The situation was explained after they heard Albert's voice, "Shut up idiot, her brothers are right there!"

Jack instinctively looked over to Davey for his reaction. Davey just smiled at him and shrugged. Jack broke eye contact and stared down at his food, playing around with it for three more minutes before he actually started eating.

After dinner, the newsies helped Bill and Darcy clean up before they were on their way back to the Safehaven since it was getting late.

"So we go back tomorrow unless you were already done. If you were, then just go about your day normally." Jack announced as they started their journey home.

They passed by the two girls on their way back and stopped to let Davey and Sarah have a small conversation. Jack assumed it was just about Les' sleeping arrangements since Sarah wouldn't be there to keep him company in their room.

Jack stayed up front for most of the walk, and Crutchie took up the rear. They didn't have much trouble getting home other than a few angry glares from anti-mutants.  
Medda welcomed them back with a cake she had received from the baker, leftover from a birthday party that had been held at the theatre. Knobs cut it up for them, and they ate it in their meeting room while Kid Blink played a short film he had watched the week previous on the wall.

When it was over, several of the newsies were asleep from the long day, including the youngest of them. Davey went up, carrying Les in his arms. Jack stayed in the room until everyone was gone and sat in the dark.

He considered just going over to the theatre and sleeping on the rafters like he had done when he was little. He would be alone anyways since Davey would probably stay with Les after today's events. He decided to suck it up and sleep alone for the first time that week. He went through the window of the room and went up the fire escape. He always liked to feel a rush of adrenaline after being fatally wounded.

He bouldered his way on the ledge of the hotel, close to the roof. He looked up and wondered if anyone would notice if he slept on the roof like he and Crutchie used to do before Medda reserved the top floor for them. But he did have a busy day tomorrow, so he swung himself onto the balcony, opened the sliding door, and pushed away the blinds.

"What the hell!?" Davey yelled, swinging a book in Jack's direction.

Jack caught it and examined the hardcover dictionary. He was startled Davey was actually in their room, but more confused as to why he decided that this was his best weapon against an intruder.

"Why would you enter through the balcony!? How did you get on the balcony!?"

"I went up the fire escape."

"The fire escape doesn't lead to our room."

"I bouldered the rest of the way."

"Jack! You could've-"

"Died?"

Awkward silence filled the room. Jack nodded and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. When he got out, Davey was huddle in his blanket on his own bed. Thinking the other boy was asleep, Jack walked over to his bed so he could finally sleep.

"What's your problem?" Davey asked, stopping Jack in his tracks, "I'm not going to tell anyone about your second mutation."

"It's not that," Jack said, sitting on his bed to face Davey, who had sat up and was staring at him.

"Then what is it? I found out, and I was fine with it after a bit! Did I do something? Do you want me to move out?"

"No. No! I just- Crutchie said something, and I didn't think-"

"I'm not going to tell anyone, I swear."

"Davey, I know, I trust yous. He just said that, I dunno, something about me spending a lot of time with ya. I don't know if you want ta hang out with others instead."

"That's what this was about! Jack, I hang out with ya because I want to! You're not holding me against my will, trust me."

"For sure?"

"Yeah, gosh, I thought you hated me after I found out about you." Davey laughed, "Well, we should probably sleep now."

Jack nodded and laid in bed, he glanced over at the sleeping boy in the other bed. Then he whispered quietly to himself.

"I could never hate ya."


	18. Over The Bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Race gets found in his secret hideout.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Race's POV

Race didn't have much of a backstory to tell compared to the other newsies. All that happened when he turned 9 was run from his bedroom in San Francisco to the front door of the Lower Manhattan Safehaven. He didn't like his parents much anyway, so he decided to stick around. Things were great there, he had a family that actually cared about him, he had a job that paid a fair amount for the funding they got overall, and he even picked up the accent from Jack and Crutchie. When he started going steady with Albert, he dreamt of never leaving this little bubble he had. He could run the circumference of the globe and still come back there knowing he was loved.

But then he and Albert broke up on mutual terms, and he'd never found another guy he wanted to date. After that, Race still felt the same way about the Safehaven as usual, but now he knew he couldn't just live on the top floor of Medda's hotel forever.

Maybe that's why he started hanging out in Brooklyn in his spare time. He never got caught by the Brooklyn safehaven, and the other boys never knew he crossed the border since he usually did his route alone. He wouldn't do it every day, but sometimes, when he needed a break, he rushed through his route and found himself at the abandoned racetrack.

There weren't any horses around there anymore, but he found comfort in running laps around and the owner of the land was content in letting Race do that as long as he brought her a fresh newspaper every time he did. Race had charmed the old woman the first day they met apparently.

That's where Race was today. He had rushed through his route as well as Jack, Davey, and Crutchie's since they were back at that suit place with Finch and Jojo.

"Ya sure, you can handle both routes by yourself? I can come with ya." Albert asked before he left for the day.

"I'm all good Al, I'll see ya tonight!" Race said.

He ran through Manhattan quickly, placing the flyers into the mailboxes and being done within two hours. When he finished he had a skip in his step as he sped over the Brooklyn Bridge to get to the racetrack.

After leaving the newspaper at the front of the old lady's office and running a couple hundred laps, he took a seat in the stands to drink some water.

"Oh, so you is the guy bringin' my nana the pape." A familiar voice said from behind him.

Race impulsively jumped up and got into a fighting stance, since he wasn't in his territory, and he was a mutant. Low and behold, Spot Conlon was standing a couple of rows up, his sleeveless arms held up in surrender. He had a bottle of something that looked suspiciously like alcohol in one hand.

"I got an agreement to be here, Conlon. I'll fight to keep that agreement." Race said, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt.

"Relax Manhattan, these is neutral grounds. Nana owns the property. I'm just here to enjoy what once was." Spot explained as he slowly stepped down to the row Race occupied. The boy in red scooted past the taller boy and took a seat once Race cautiously lowered his fists. Race turned and sat down as well, shifting a little ways away from the intimidating boy.

"Its Race."

"Race?"

"Racetrack, if ya want the full thing."

Spot laughed and took a sip of his drink, "Yeah, ain't no way I'm calling ya that. That's a stupid nickname."

"Yours is Spot." Race fired back, then immediately recoiled after remembering who he was talking to.

Surprisingly, Spot didn't bite his head off but instead laughed as he took another swig of his bottle. "Fair point, Manhattan."

"Anthony."

"Huh?"

"If ya ain't gonna call me Race, you can call me Anthony."

Spot looked the blond up and down before nodding and holding the neck of the bottle towards him. "Want some?"

Race shook his head, reached into his jacket, and pulled out a blunt from an inside pocket. He pulled a lighter from his pants and lit the end of it.

"That weed?" Spot asked, looking concerned.

"Why, ya want a hit?" Race mimicked the way Spot had offered him alcohol.

"Ain't that illegal?"

"Ain't we technically illegal?" Race wagged his eyebrows and winked.

Spot scoffed, amused. The shorter boy grabbed the blunt from him and took a hit. He handed it back, and the two just sat there enjoying the company. After a bit, Race extinguished the stick on the ground and tossed it into a nearby garbage can. He considered just ditching the Brooklyn leader without another word, but Spot started talking.

"Ya know, I've only ever talked ta Kelly and the kid with the limp before. Sometimes I even seen the others, but I've never talked ta you much. Ain't even seen ya around."

"Yeah? What's your point?"

"Just think it's weird considering you seem pretty tight with my nana if she's letting ya run around."

"Well, I only ever come to this part 'a Brooklyn, and I don't see her much. Just drop off her paper and run around a bit."

"And smoke weed, apparently." Spot added.

"Yeah, well, I'm supposed ta be tryna quit, so don't tell the newsies."

"Sure, long as ya don't tell my guys I'm lettin' ya hang around Brooklyn territory," Spot said, standing up, beginning to walk up towards the exit.

"Thought you said these was neutral grounds." Race pointed out, turning to face him as he walked away.

"Yeah, I lied." Spot said, turning to wink, "Have a nice run, Tony."

Race couldn't stop the smile creeping onto his face, but thankfully Spot had left by then. He couldn't get involved with their rival's leader, anyways. That would be crazy. He looked back to the track, debating whether or not to continue his run. Ultimately, he decided to just go back home.

He ran to the hotel where he saw a bunch of newsies were coming back from the end of their shifts. Race also saw that Jack and the others had come back from the tailor's. He still smelled like weed so he ran past everyone and up the stairs to the top floor. Albert and Elmer were hanging out in the hall, so Race slowed to normal.

"Oh hey, Race!" Elmer greeted cheerily. The two were sitting against the wall outside Albert's room.

"Ya know, Knobs is gonna be able to smell the weed on ya, even if you change," Albert said. Race glared at his best friend, and Albert just shot back with a grin.

"Shut up." Race stuck out his tongue and disappeared into his room to take a thorough shower.


	19. Brooklyn Benefits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spot makes his way to attend the Safehaven Benefit and runs into a certain runner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spot and Race POVs

"You really goin' ta this?" Hotshot said as he watched Spot fixing his tie in their mirror.

The Brooklyn Safehaven wasn't as big as the Manhattan one, since it wasn't a hotel. The owner of the restaurant where their safehaven had the storefront and the kitchen, the basement was used as storage. The Brooklyn Safehaven was located on the two floors above the store. The first floor up had Mr. Huang's office and a bathroom, the other three rooms were big enough for most of them. The oldest ones, Bart and Myron, took one room, Graves, Splasher, and Skittery had the other. Joey had her own room since she was the only girl and Mrs. Huang nearly threw a fit when she found out her husband had almost used the extra room for more storage. If more mutants appeared in Brooklyn, Spot would place them in the small law firm next over, where the younger kids who shouldn't be working stuck around. He never saw them much, but he knew the woman working there and she was nice enough. Plus, Skittery had been doing routine checks on the kids and he hadn't reported a problem yet.

Spot and Hotshot lived in the very small attic on the top floor. It was big enough to be considered a master bedroom but small enough that not more than two older teenagers could live there at once.

"Yeah, the leader of each safehaven was recommended to be there. Ya should be lucky we ain't all being forced to go like the safehaven in Lower Manhattan." Spot replied, undoing the knot in his tie for the tenth time, he couldn't get the fold right.

"Ya sure it ain't just 'cause of that speedy guy?" Hotshot asked, meeting Spot's eyes in the mirror and winking.

"I've had one conversation with 'im, there's absolutely nothing there." Spot lied, easily.

Sure, that was the first time he had had an actual conversation with the Manhattan boy, but it wasn't the first time he had seen him. In a group setting, the other boy didn't seem afraid to yell at him. This was a first, because Spot had built up an intimidating reputation, and the only ones who had the guts to speak against him were his safehaven family here in Brooklyn and Jack Kelly, who was all sorts of intimidating itself. It was a nice change of pace, plus the blond was cute, and Spot liked cute.

"Want me ta tag along?" Hotshot offered.

"Do yous wanna tag along?" Spot asked.

"Not really." The taller boy laughed, "But at least lemme do the tie for ya. My dad was a tailor before I burnt his shop down."

So Spot let his best friend tie his tie, and soon he was walking off. It was everyone's off day, so he got a lot of wolf-whistles at his appearance as he walked through the door. He held up two birds as he walked out in his rented suit as he walked his way to the fancy ballroom where the fundraiser was being held.

When he got there, he was met with two young men at the entrance behind a table with two clipboards of sign-in sheets. A young girl was also hanging around, who looked a lot like one of the guys.

"Hey there! You're here for the fundraiser?" The boy in a beige suit questioned.

"Uh, yeah, I's one a' the safehaven leaders." Spot clarified.

"That's great! Just sign in here!" Spot saw they had a different sheet for safehaven residents and another for people who would actually be paying, probably for Plumber to keep track of who to chew out for not showing up.

Before he reached the table he glanced at the entrance of the room he would be entering momentarily. He was probably early since he only saw a few people around that didn't seem to be wearing servers' uniforms. A glance at his sign-in sheet showed him that the Queens' leader and the Bronx's leader were also here, but they were probably hidden in the crowd of fancy, rich folks. Spot scrawled his name in the next blank slot and wrote which safehaven he was from. As he finished writing the final 'n', he felt a breeze to his left.

"Hey Darcy, Bill! Hey there, little lady!" A familiar voice chimed. The little girl giggled and waved. Spot was making sure he spelled his name right, so he didn't turn to see who it was right away.

"Did you run ahead of your safehaven?" The man in the blue suit asked.

"Yeah, they'll be here in fifteen minutes tops." He said.

"Katherine just wants you guys to sign in." The man in beige told him, tapping the clipboard with a pen as Spot finally turned around to face whoever had just come up.  
He didn't recognize the boy at first, since it seemed he had actually taken a shower and was wearing something that didn't look like it was found in a dumpster. The other boy looked just as surprised to see him.

"Spot?"

"Hey, Tony." Spot had to get a hold of himself so he didn't jeopardize his reputation. "I'll see ya in there."

He then adjusted the collar of his shirt and walked into the room, not taking a look back to Race.

—————————————————

"What was that about?" Bill asked while Race signed his name underneath, studying the name above his for a beat before looking up and shrugging to acknowledge he knew Bill was talking to him.

"I thought you've never talked to Spot Conlon before?" Darcy added.

"I haven't-hadn't. I just saw 'im while I was doin' my route yesterday."

"Spot Conlon was in Manhattan?" Darcy asked, suspiciously.

"Uh.." Race speeded away from the conversation.

The two could probably tell he was lying now, but Race couldn't think of anything to say. He doubted that Bill and Darcy would say anything about it anyway since they didn't know him that well. Sally might, but he didn't really care.

Once Race was in the room, he scanned the area for anyone he knew. He spotted Katherine talking to some safehaven leaders by the bar. He didn't recognize many of the rich people other than Darcy's family. He waved to them politely, but it didn't seem like they recognized him. He finally saw Spot standing alone, the furthest from the stage where Medda would be performing. He sped through the room to get to him, dodging waters with fragile plates and dishes.

Spot did not seem surprised to see Race, and he skidded to a halt next to him.

"Your real name is Sean?" Race asked as an icebreaker after a minute of the two just staring at each other. "I saw it on the sign-in sheet."

"Yeah, but don't tell nobody." He said, "I prefer Spot, but I didn't know if they needed real names."

"What are ya doin' here anyway? Wouldn't think benefits were your type a' thing."

"They ain't, just wanted to see all the commotion was for." Spot explained, "What about you? I don't see your friends around."

"They're comin'. I'm just quick." Race replied.

"Well, we got a bit before this thing actually starts."

"Yeah?"

"How's about you 'n me sneak out back and wander 'round for a bit," Spot asked.

Race was awestruck. Was the king of Brooklyn really asking to hang out with him?

"I-I can't just leave, my friends are expectin' me to be here."

"Relax Tony, I gotta be here later anyway. If I ain't, Plumber would probably kill me. We'll come right back. I just ain't used to bein' around all these fancy schmucks." Spot gestured to the room. "Plus I ain't that used to Manhattan sights. How's about you show me around."

"Uh, yeah, okay, sure. But we escape my way" Race took Spot by the hand and sped through the front door, fast enough so that nobody would see them, but they also didn't catch the person who had snuck in past them.


	20. Junior Hostage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the newsies arrive at the fundraiser.

Jack Kelly walked into the building first, followed by the rest of the newsies, sans Race since he had gone ahead. He walked up to the table where Bill's little sister Sally was sitting alone.

"Hey, Sally!" Jack greeted the young girl, "Where's your brother?"

"Dunno, he said he had to go after he talked to some guy." She shrugged.

"He left ya alone?" Jack may not be the closest to Bill, but he didn't think he'd just leave his little sister for no reason. "Where's Darcy 'n Katherine?"

"Katherine's inside, Darcy went to the bathroom a while ago." Sally replied, "You can go in, but I think she wants everyone to sign in first."

Jack nodded, if Bill had left his sister alone, it was probably for a good reason. There probably wasn't a reason to worry.

Jack let everyone else sign their names in first, hanging back in case Darcy or Bill came back so he could question them. The Jacobs were at the back of the Manhattan Safehaven lineup, so Jack walked up to Davey.

"Is it weird that Bill left his kid sister alone?" He asked the other boy.

Davey got a pensive look on his face before turning to glance at the young girl who was playing on an iPad. "He just went to talk to someone right? He probably didn't get too far, and she looks entertained enough. But I don't know Bill too well so I couldn't tell you, Jack."

That was fair, of course Davey wouldn't know the answer. Sally didn't seem nervous or afraid either. Jack couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong though.  
A lot of the Newsies entered the room as they signed in, but some of them were waiting for Jack. Not wanting to leave Sally alone, he asked Les if he'd help her out just until Darcy came back. The young boy enthusiastically agreed and slid up a chair next to the girl. As he walked in, he grabbed Elmer and asked him if he could make a duplication babysit for a bit.

Elmer nodded and made a copy. The duplicate Elmer and the two kids sat at the front table and the rest of them went inside. Many of the newsies branch off to do their own thing, some went to reserve some tables, most went to the snack bar. Jack stayed by the door, still hesitant about leaving Sally and Les without real supervision.

"What's wrong?" Davey asked, looking back when he noticed Jack wasn't following him.

"Nothin', I just got a bad feeling is all. Maybe I'll just wait by here until Miss Medda comes in." Jack explained.

"I could wait with you?"

Jack was going to insist he didn't but then he saw that Sarah migrated towards Katherine and a group of wealthy-looking women. He also saw that the one other close friend Davey had made in Finch was messing around with Knobs, Barney, and Smalls, all newsies that Davey has barely interacted with. Jack nodded at the taller boy's proposal and they both stood by the entrance to the hall.

"So, your sister's gettin' friendly with Kath, ain't she?" Jack pointed out, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah, their sleepover was fun apparently. She's never done something like that since before..." Davey trailed his sentence off and mimicked the way Sarah uses her powers with his hands instead.

"If ya don't mind me askin', how'd you two know yous was gay if yous never went out?"

"Uh, television mostly. I was never really into the girls in the shows, Sarah was never really into the guys. But she did go out sometimes so she probably has a better understanding of her sexuality than I have."

"Whaddya mean?"

"Well, she's kissed someone before."

"You never kissed no one?"

"Nope."

"Well if ya-"

Before Jack could finish his sentence, they heard a commotion from the front of the building. They walked out and saw Darcy was more or less freaking out. Elmer's clone was rubbing his back gently while Les and Sally just looked very confused.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jack asked, walking up.

"Bill would never just leave Sally here unsupervised! His parents already basically disowned him! When he's in charge of Sally, he's on her like a hawk!" Darcy yelled, he was talking quickly, panicked.

Hearing this granted Jack the permission he needed to go into detective mode. "Did you try calling him?"

"As soon as she told me, he's not answering," Darcy answered.

Jack turned to Bill's sister, "Sally, what did the guy with your brother look like."

"Uh, I dunno. He was wearing a funny hat, though. Like the ones from those old movies with the guy with the moustache. Charlie somethin'?"

"Chaplin?" Davey chimed in.

"Yeah! And he was wearin' suspenders too."

Jack froze. If his hunch was right, Bill was in a lot of danger.

"Okay, Les, Sally, go find Katherine and Sarah. Darcy, you stay here with clone Elmer. Davey, come with me." Jack commanded, everyone nodded and did as Jack said. The kids ran ahead of the two boys to find the girls.

"Jack, Jack! What's wrong? Where are we going?" Davey called out, lightly jogging to keep up with Jack's determined pace.

"If I'm right, we're gonna need some more people."

"Right about what?"

Jack turned around, stopping Davey in his tracks, "Ya trust me?"

"That's kind of a cheesy line-"

"Well, do ya?"

Davey stuck out his tongue and pulled in his bottom lip in thought. He looked up with his eyes as he let out a deep sigh and shrugged. "I mean, yeah."

"Alright, then come on."

Davey followed Jack around the entire room. They only collected a handful of the boys before Jack was leading them out. Tommy Boy, Mike, Ike, Finch, Sniper, Smalls, Crutchie, and Kenny followed Jack and Davey outside of the building without question.

"Thanks for comin' fellas. Mike, Ike, can ya make sure no ones watchin' or eavesdroppin'? One of these guys'll fill ya in after." Jack said once he got them all into the narrow alley beside the building.

The twins nodded and before their eyes, Mike shifted into a large dog and Ike turned into a young boy, the suit he'd been wearing turned into a pair of jeans and a baseball tee. The two were unrecognizable and if they went out, the people on the sidewalk would think it was a small boy tasked with walking his dog.

As soon as they were outside the alley, Jack leaned in close to the other boys. They all got the message and got into a huddle to hear what their fearless leader had to say.  
"I think the Delanceys have Bill," Jack said lowly.

The accusation got a lot of shocked reactions. Finch looked about ready for a fight and Davey just silently gaped. Tommy Boy was the only one of the seven that were saving face, but his arm was rubbing circles into his Sniper's back, comfortingly.

"What're we supposed to do then, boss? Do ya knows where they is?" Smalls asked, his anger making his voice shake.

"Not exactly but we need two groups. One stays here to keep an eye out and the rest of us'll use Darcy's phone to see if Bill was at another location." Jack explained, "Crutchie, you good to link this many people up at once?"

"I'm a little outta 'a practice, but I'll do my best."

Jack nodded, "Okay, here's the plan-"


	21. Derailed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys attempt to carry out their plan but one too many things go wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW:  
> Mild Strangulation near the end
> 
> Sorry that this chapter took so long, I had midterms and decided to take an additional week to try and reset my writer's block. I'll try to update this more often.

After the twins came back and were filled in, Crutchie made a mind link, and the group split off. Finch flew the two of them up to the roof and made sure nothing would interrupt the link while the rest of them split off into two groups.

Ike, Smalls, Sniper, and Kenny started tracking Bill's location with Darcy's phone while Davey, Jack, Tommy Boy, and Mike stayed behind and alert in case anything went wrong. The four of them split up to cover the room. Mike stayed upfront with Darcy and Tommy Boy, Jack, and Davey spread out across the venue to cover more ground. Jack headed over to the stage, Medda and some performers had arrived at that point, and they were setting up.

"Hello, Jack! I didn't see you when I arrived, is everything okay?" Medda asked when she spotted them.

"I was just getting some fresh air Miss Medda," Jack replied coolly.

"Alright, I'll be back here with my staff if you need me." Medda gestures behind the stage curtains.

Jack nodded and turned to survey the room. Everything looked fine. The other newsies and other guests seemed to be having a good time. He made eye contact with Davey, who was on the other side of the room. They both nodded but couldn't be too distracted as they had a task at hand. He allowed his eyes to wander again and saw Katherine and Sarah dancing to the upbeat music playing through the speakers.

_ "Jack, we got a serious problem." _ Smalls' voice echoed in Jack's brain suddenly.

_ "Did you find Bill?" _ Jack projected to Crutchie.

_ "No, but we found his phone." _ Ike's voice came through this time.

Jack let the revelation kick in before projecting his words to Crutchie's mind link again.  _ "Get out of there!" _

The thought was met with silence. He looked over to Tommy Boy, who seemed to be compressing his panic. He also turned to look at Davey, who just looked as if he was waiting for a sign from Jack to do anything.

_ "Crutchie? What happened?" _ Jack pushed through.

_ "I can't get ta them anymore, but the mind link between the rest a' us is still intact."  _ Jack involuntarily let out a sigh of relief when he heard Crutchie's voice in his head.  _ "What do ya want me ta do?" _

_ "Keep the link and stay up there with Finch. I gotta find Race to see if he can do a quick sweep of the city to find out where the others went," _ Jack said. He saw Mike standing at the doorway to the room and remembered that he'd be concerned about his brother and Tommy Boy would be worried sick about his boyfriend.  _ "We'll find 'em, don't worry." _

He then scanned the room for any sign of their speedster. Fortunately, he did see Albert, who might have an idea of where his best friend was.

"Al, do ya know where Race is?" Jack asked, interrupting whatever conversation he was having with Elmer.

"Uh, got no clue, sorry. I ain't seen 'im since he ran ahead of us earlier."

Jack looked down when he felt a tug on his sleeve. Sally and Les there, holding plates from the snack table.

"Are you looking for Racetrack?" Sally asked, a chocolate strawberry muffling her voice.

"Yeah, you seen 'im?" Jack asked, bending down to get eye level with the smaller children.

"He ran out with some guy. I don't think he knew I saw them." She replied, which caused a reaction out of Albert.

"A guy?" The redhead exchanged a look with Jack, "What'd he look like?"

"Dunno. I wasn't paying attention." She shrugged, "But his name is just before Race's in the sign-up book!"

"I'll go check that out, thanks, Sally." The little girl beamed and ran off with Les tailing close behind.

"Should we be worried?" Elmer asked.

"We'll see." Jack answered honestly, "Just enjoy the party, yeah?"

The two nodded, and Jack left them to their own devices. He made his way to the front of the building and stopped at the table where Darcy and Mike were waiting. He grabbed the newsies sign-up sheet off the table and scanned for Race's name.

"Who's Sean Conlon?" He asked, looking up to Darcy.

"Ain't Spot's last name Conlon?" Mike pointed out.

"The Brooklyn leader? He came by a while ago." Darcy added.

Jack looked down at the sign-up sheet again and did recognize the messy handwriting as Spot's. 

_ "Crutchie, there any chance you can get through ta Race?"  _ Jack projected into the link.

_ "Maybe, but I can't keep the link-up if I try." _

Jack brought a hand up to scratch the back of his head in frustration. He looked up to Mike since he was also in the link, and he was staring right back at Jack, waiting for an answer as well.

_ "Don't drop it just yet, Race might not have a phone, but I know the Brooklyn Safehaven leader probably will. And if the others are okay we'll be able to pick them back up." _

_ "Roger that." _

Jack nodded pointedly at the twin in front of him and told him to wait at the table in case Race came back from his little rendezvous. He walked back into the party where Davey was waiting for him by the entrance.

"What's gonna happen now?" He asked.

"Not sure, but we can't just abandon the others with no warning," Jack replied, eyes darting around for any suspicious movement.

Before Davey could speak again, Katherine got up on stage to announce Medda and her band from the theatre. Jack and Davey applauded, momentarily distracted while Medda started her set with a song Jack basically grew up with.

Unfortunately, Jack couldn't enjoy it because Mike's voice filled the link.

_ "Jack! Guess who just walked in!" _

Jack leaned back to look out and saw that Bill Hearst Jr. was walking up to Darcy and Mike. The Manhattan leader looked over at Davey, who looked just about as surprised as he was. Tommy Boy appeared next to Jack and Davey in a flash.

"If Bill's fine, where's the others?" Tommy Boy asked after looking out as well.

Suddenly, Bill's hand shot up to Mike's neck and started to strangle him. Mike began to change into different animals rapidly to try and get out of the hold. Darcy had been knocked back in his chair, and when he tried to get up, Jack saw an icy pool form underneath him, preventing him from being able to properly stand. Jack looked back to Davey and Tommy Boy momentarily and saw a flash of recognition in Tommy Boy's eyes. That confirmed exactly who they were dealing with.

Jack looked back to the scene in front of them and watched as Bill morphed into Ike. He was about to charge at the shapeshifter but glanced at the front door where he saw a newcomer in the corner of his eye.

The familiar face of Sniper was making direct eye contact with him, a ball of ice was beginning to form in his hand.


	22. A Boy and A Break-In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Safehaven benefit is interrupted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tommy Boy POV at first, then back to Jack POV

Tommy Boy and Sniper did not meet at the Safehaven, believe it or not. Their first meeting was the year before either of them arrived on the hotel's front step.

  
11-year-old Thomas Baker was jumping through the aisles of a grocery store, taking food off the shelves and teleporting right outside, where his backpack was hidden in an alley behind a dumpster. He was almost home free with a loaf of bread in his hands, but as he made his final jump into the alley, he glanced at the exit and saw a young Ethan Wah staring right back at him.

  
"Uh..." The blond got ready to teleport away but hesitated since he would be losing a month of food.

  
"No! It's okay, it's okay! Look!"

  
Right before Thomas' eyes, the dark-haired boy produced a ball of snow from his hand and threw it at the brick wall beside them. Thomas stared at the print it left on the wall before jumping up and down and screaming about how cool it was.

  
"I'm Thomas!" He introduced, having not known many mutants beforehand.

  
"Ethan." The other boy smiled, widely as they shook hands.

  
"Ethan! Where are you!?" A gruff man's voice yelled. Ethan's smile melted into a faded look of fear.

  
"That's my dad. I gotta go." He said frowning. "I'll distract him so's you can take your stuff."

  
"Thanks, Ethan, it was nice ta meet ya," Thomas said.

  
"Nice ta meet ya too, Tommy."

  
And then the other boy was running around the corner. Thomas heard yelling and decided to wait it out. When it got quiet, he ran out to his hideout of the month, and he never saw Ethan again.

  
Until about a year later, a month after he and his friend Louis, nicknamed Kid Blink by Racetrack Higgins, had been recruited by the Manhattan Safehaven. He never really forgot about the first mutant he'd ever met, and was surprised to see him running up to the safehaven with a bloody nose and black eye.

  
"Ethan?"

  
"Thomas?" The other boy said, out of breath.

  
"It's Tommy Boy, now." He replied, and he brought his old acquaintance into the hotel.

  
Finch offhandedly called him Sniper after the meeting, and it stuck. The newly proclaimed Sniper would be the last mutant in the hotel for years, and Tommy would always be there for him. So much so, that they began dating when they were 14.

  
That's why Tommy Boy's heart dropped when he saw Sniper hurling a ball of ice at Jack. Time slowed as he teleported as the ice left his boyfriend's palm. Seconds seemed like hours as he grasped the cold in his hands, flipping forward to gain more momentum as he chucked the ice back where it came from, right into Sniper's head, knocking him out. The world seemed to stop around Tommy Boy as he watched the boy he loved fall backward on impact and screamed as he saw that the hit drew blood.

  
He ran forward without thinking and thrown forwards by Smalls, who rapidly grew in front of his eyes, hitting him with an uppercut, which caused his to fly onto his back and knocked him out as his head hit the hardwood floor.

  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
Jack had to think quickly. He turned to Davey and told him to go and get Buttons for Sniper and Tommy Boy. Davey nodded and turned invisible. Jack's immunity allowed him to see Davey running into the ballroom. He saw that people were beginning to see what the commotion was. Medda was still singing, so Jack had to think of a way to get everyone to safety without causing a panic.

  
His best option would be to get Darcy inside. Unfortunately, the older boy was trapped behind Ike. The whammied twin looked like was about to kill his brother, who had shifted back into a human and was still trying to get a good grip out of the chokehold. Jack also knew he wouldn't be able to leave the door without Smalls and Kenny running past him and endangering the benefit's guests.

  
Fortunately, Finch flew past the front door and hooked onto Kenny's back, pulling him down to the ground and attempting to pin him beneath his knee. Jack panicked a bit when he saw Smalls gearing up to help Kenny, but the miracle of Racetrack Huggins came zipping into the building, knocking Smalls into the wall beside Jack.

  
"Cutting it close, ain't ya?" Jack commented.

  
"Sorry, boss. I was out with a friend." Race shrugged.

  
Right on cue, Spot Conlon straight towards Ike and pulled him to the ground.

  
"Hey, Kelly." Spot greeted with a nod.

  
"Need any help there?" Jack asked as Ike jumped on top of the shorter boy.

  
"Nah, I'm good." Spot waved him off and took Ike's legs into an embrace before pulling him back to the ground.

  
Jack and Race ran to a traumatized Darcy and a wheezing Mike. Race went to make sure the twin was okay while Jack went to Darcy.

  
"You good?" Jack asked.

  
"I-I believe so," Darcy said.

  
"Get inside and tell Katherine to take everyone to safety," Jack said, helping the older boy up to his feet.

  
Jack turned to Race and told him to grab Crutchie from the roof and take him to safety. Race hesitated, seeing Kenny and Smalls getting up from the ground, but a sudden breeze confirmed that he followed Jack's orders.

  
Jack squared up and got ready to fight off Smalls, which could be difficult considering there's nothing about Smalls' power that Jack would be immune to. Smalls grew in size until he was up to the ceiling and lowered his arms quickly at both Jack and Mike. They both rolled out of the way just in time, and the twin transformed into a cat. The brown cat leaped up onto Smalls' long leg and dug his claws in, giving Jack a chance to roll under the table while the giant attempted to kick the shapeshifter off.

  
While under the table, Jack watched as Katherine ushered many people behind the door backstage. He also saw Buttons and Davey running up with Jojo in tow. He watched as Jojo's arms extended until he got his limbs wrapped around Smalls' shoulders so that he was hanging from them. Davey turned invisible, and Jack saw his translucent figure bolting to help Finch take Kenny down. Buttons ran over to Sniper and Tommy Boy, hoping he would be able to drag them out of the way of combat so he could heal them. Ike and Spot were still in a one-on-one face-off, as Ike was somehow tactfully dodging Spot's reckless punches.

  
Jack was about to go and help the Brooklyn resident but saw two figures in the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see the Delancey brothers walking in. Oscar's eyes were focused, studying the scene in front of them while Morris headed into the main room. Jack went to go stop him, but Race appeared next to him suddenly.

  
"Fuck! Race!" Jack whisper-yelled.

  
"Sorry, but why are the Delanceys here. Ain't they in jail for the kidnappin'?" The blond asked.

  
"Whaddya wanna bet dear, old Uncle Weasel bailed 'em out?" Jack scoffed, then motioned for the speedster to follow him as he followed Morris into the main room.

  
Race grabbed Jack and raced them behind a table so they could see Morris, but he couldn't see them. Jack held a finger over his mouth as he watched whatever the other boy might do.

  
Morris began using his mutation to pick up tables and throw them aside, effectively trashing the place. Every so often, he would write something into his phone. Jack looked back at Race, and they had a hushed conversation about what moves they should make next. They realized they'd probably been talking too long and looked out towards the other boy again.

  
But Morris was gone, and the fighting had stopped outside. Jack and Race exchanged another look before running to the front hall where Jack was met with the worst of the possibilities.

  
Everyone was gone except for a still invisible Davey, who was cowering into a corner and a small brown mouse scurrying around in panicked circles.

  
"What the fuck happened?" Jack asked.

  
Davey became visible as he looked up, and Mike transformed back into a human. The twin ended up being the one who spoke up, "We- we don't know."

  
Jack was about to question what that meant, but before he could, Davey spoke up. "There was a flash of white, and everyone was suddenly gone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for 100 Kudos! Also, thank you for your lovely comments, I love reading them and am glad to see you guys enjoy this so far!


	23. A Flash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The remaining Manhattan boys take a trip to Brooklyn to see if they can find some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a bit to get out, I had finals and was studying a bunch. Hope you enjoy this chapter!

_ "Crutchie! Crutchie!" _ Jack tried projecting out, but there was no answer.

After finding out almost everyone who had been in the room disappeared, Race and Jack went to check the people who had been hiding with the rest of the benefit's guests. None of the mutants were there. Katherine said there was a flash, and the safehavens were gone.

The benefit guests had all scurried home by that point. Some guests dropped a bit more money after facing the dangers the safehavens could face. Medda had sent home her staff as well, so it was just the four remaining mutants, Katherine, Darcy, Medda, and Sally left.

_ "Crutchie, come on!" _ Jack tried again, helplessly. A hand on his back snapped him out of his state. He turned to see Race giving him a sad smile. He looked around the room and saw Davey curled into a ball, tears silently streaming down his face, Mike nervously pacing around the room, Katherine and Medda talking in hushed whispers, and Darcy holding Sally close.

"He ain't-" Jack stopped talking when his voice cracked. He swallowed down his sadness, desperate to keep a strong face for everyone else.

"They can't have gone far. Even Tommy Boy can't teleport more than a couple blocks down." Race said, "Plus, we know they was only after the mutants, other than Bill."

"You think Bill's a mutant?" The two boys turned to see Sally looking at them with wide eyes.

"If he was, he would've found out a long time ago," Jack assured her. He looked at Darcy, who was nodding in agreement.

"Even if he was hiding it, he couldn't hide it from me, right?" He asked. Jack paled a little, knowing full well that he had been hiding a mutation from his own found family for a long time. But Bill wasn't the type to do what Jack did, especially if it put Darcy in danger. So, Jack nodded.

"So, what're we supposed to do now?" Race asked.

"I's been thinking actually." Mike interrupted. He had stopped pacing but was still fidgeting with his hands. "Me 'n Davey wasn't taken, right? 'Cause I was in mouse form 'n Davey was invisible. An' no one knew where you 'n Race went. The benefit was publicly advertised, so people knew mutants was gonna be here. So someone's gotta be roundin' up mutants with some sorta teleporter?"

"Tommy's the only teleporter in the area. And he was knocked out." Jack pointed out.

"Do ya think the other safehavens were hit?" Race asked.

"Wanna go check?" Jack asked.

Race nodded, "You's gonna come?"

Jack glanced at Davey, who seemed to have been listening to their conversation. "It'd be good ta stick together in case anything happens, right?"

Davey wiped his sleeve across his face to dry off the tear streaks that stained his face. He stood up and nodded.

"Hey, Miss Medda! We's gonna check up on the other safehavens ta make sure everything is okay."

"Just be careful, and if anything remotely strange happens, you are to call me right away," Medda demanded.

"Yes, ma'am." Jack nodded, taking Race's hand.

Race grabbed one of Davey's hands with his free one, and Mike turned into a small bird and flew up into Race's pocket. Just like that, the remaining people in the ballroom saw a blur before the group was gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Davey turned invisible as soon as they stopped, just in case something went wrong. He followed Race and Jack to the door of the Brooklyn Safehaven and flinched when Race yelled up at the open window.

A face appeared in it for a split second, and it was gone again, but soon they heard heavy footfalls. All four of them jumped at the door swinging open. Hotshot was there with Bart right behind him.

"What?" The taller of the two boys asked.

"Is everyone still here? Even the kids in the other building?" Jack asked.

"What's it to ya?"

"Spot was taken with a buncha our guys, and we don't know where they is!" Race blurted.

The brunet Brooklyn boy looked back at his blond friend, eyes wide. He turned his head back towards the Manhattan boys and stepped back to let them all in. Mike flew out of Race's pocket and transformed back into a human as they entered. Hotshot hurried them in before shutting the door quickly.

"What happened?" He asked, leaning his back onto the door.

"We was fighting, 'cause them Delanceys showed up." Race answered.

"And there was some sorta flash before they was gone." Mike finished.

"A flash?" Bart questioned, arms crossed.

The two Brooklyn boys looked at each other and nodded. Bart ran off somewhere, while Hotshot told the newsies to follow him. They walked up the stairs and into the attic. The tall boy flicked a switch, and light flooded the room to reveal it as a two-person bedroom.

"Take a seat. I just need a second to find somethin'," He told them, opening a trunk in the far corner of the room.

Jack grabbed the chair next to the desk and pulled it out, so he was straddling the back piece, Mike hopped up on the wooden table after moving some papers around, and Race sat on the edge of one of the beds. Davey decided to take a seat on the floor, and the four waited for Hotshot to finish. The tall Brooklyn boy shut the trunk and walked back over with a stack of papers. He plopped them on the table, next to Mike.

"What's that?" Jack asks.

"List a' mutants 'round New York 'n what their powers are. It ain't complete, but it's the ones Spot's run into."

"Why does he have that?" Race asked.

"In case he needs a job done that none a' us in Brooklyn can do it. It's mostly safehavens, but he got some strays in here, too."

Hotshot shifted through the papers quickly before pulling out a page and handing it to Jack.

It was a handwritten list of all of the Manhattan newsies and their powers. Jack was surprised at how thorough the list was. He felt internal relief when he saw that his second mutation wasn't present on the list but they had the mutations of some of the newsies that rarely used their powers, like Romeo's pheromones and Henry's ability to breathe underwater. At the bottom of the page, the three Jacobs siblings had been added, along with a quick description of their mutations.

"We's supposed to report in if we see anythin' new. If it's in a safehaven turf, Spot goes ta check it out, but if it's not, he usually just writes them in as an individual." Hotshot explains.

"So why is ya showing us this?" Jack asked.

"Well, ya said flash, and obviously one 'a your boys does the teleportation thing."

"Yeah, but there's no way he-"

"Well, here's the thing. Graves and one of the younger mutants got ambushed about a week ago, and look at this."

Jack looked at the page Hotshot was holding up, looking right where he was pointing. There, next to a blank space that should be what the name of the mutant, were the words  _ 'Temporarily Steals Mutations'. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Powers Revealed in This Chapter:  
> Romeo - Releases Pheromones  
> Henry - Can Breathe Underwater


End file.
